Liberty University Club Sports Athletics
Flames rally past feisty Golden Grizzlies for 5-4 OT victory
2/5/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's D1 Hockey
Left shorthanded by suspensions incurred late in last Saturday's game at Delaware, Liberty University's ACHA Division I men's hockey team drew deep from its bench and dug deep from its heart to find a way to rally past Oakland (Mich.) University for a 5-4 overtime triumph on Friday, Military Appreciation Night, at the LaHaye Ice Center.
"It was a huge comeback," Flames Head Coach Kirk Handy said, noting the front line was playing without juniors Robert Ward and Chase Harris, senior leading scorer Danny Logan, and freshmen Ray Wilson and Eric Masters and put sophomore defenseman and head captain Ben Hughes on attack in his first game back from injury. "We've battled all year and we were shorthanded tonight. I'm happy for our guys. It was a hard-earned game tonight and excited to move forward."
Moments after freshman forward Zac Hayes had his shot blocked by Oakland goalie Anthony Munoz and had his helmet ripped off from behind by Ryan Rotondi, leading to a scuffle that put both players in the penalty box, Liberty broke the scoring ice in four-on-four action.
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| Flames forward Grant Garvin works the puck behind the net. He scored the first goal in Friday night's 5-4 win. |
Freshman forward Zechariah Roberts controlled the puck along the boards before senior defenseman Kyle Miller set up freshman defenseman Zane Schartz, who cut into the right slot and sent a beautiful backhand pass to junior forward Grant Garvin in the right circle where he netted his team-leading 16th goal of the season top shelf with 10 minutes, 58 seconds to play in the first period.
"Zane had a solid game for us," Handy said. "He was solid defensively and he chipped in a goal and an assist tonight."
But Oakland struck back to tie the game and seize a 2-1 lead in the final 2:07, sparked by a heads-up assist by junior forward Drew Parus who had fallen down in front of the goal but still managed to get his stick on the puck from on his back. He shuffled it across to Golden Grizzlies freshman forward Frank Saputo in a wide-open right crease where he beat Liberty junior goalie Matt Pinel with a shot that rung off the right post and into the back of the net.
Just 31 seconds later, Oakland sophomore forward Doug Andrews followed his own shot blocked by Pinel with two putbacks in the left crease, slipping the second through the five hole for a 2-1 Golden Grizzlies advantage going into the first intermission.
Two power plays kept Oakland on the offensive in the first half of the second period, when Pinel made several clutch saves, as he had early in the first. Between the two penalty kills, Liberty missed a golden opportunity to net the equalizer when Hayes' shot from the right crease on a two-on-none break struck off the left post.
Back at even strength, the Golden Grizzlies padded their lead to 3-1 when sophomore forward and head captain Bill Kocher crashed the net from the left side and snuck in a putback from the right post of a point-blank shot from the left post by Andrews with 10:58 left in the second.
Pinel made a spectacular stop of a shorthanded two-on-one breakaway opportunity by Saputo before the Golden Grizzlies killed the rest of the Flames' power play and went on a third one of their own in the second stanza.
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| Tyson Street high-fives Flames' teammates on the bench after his goal early in the second pulled them back within 3-2.. |
The Flames fed off Handy's emotion on the bench, responding to pull back within 3-2 on a shorthanded score when freshman forward Jeff Wilson skated in and sent a cross-crease pass to senior forward Tyson Street for a forehand finish from deep in the left crease past the pads of Munoz with 3:23 left.
However, two minutes later, Oakland re-opened its lead to two goals, seconds after its fifth power play expired, when Saputo's shot from the right slot was tipped in by Kyle Nelson near the right post for a 4-2 Golden Grizzlies edge.
Sensing an urgent need for another emotional lift six minutes into the third period, Street retaliated for an elbow to the head by an Oakland player by engaging in a fight that led to the ejection of both players.
Just seconds after action resumed, the Flames capitalized when Hayes, skating through the left circle, went to one knee and lifted a wrist shot top shelf past Munoz, making it a one-goal game with 13:42 remaining in regulation.
Then, just over two minutes later, Wilson netted the equalizer with a shot from the top of the left circle, knotting the score at 4-4 with 11:14 to go.
"I really loved our response from our guys," Handy said. "We went down 3-1 and came back with that nice shorthanded goal by Tyson Street, who stepped up when it was 4-2, goes out and changes the momentum in the game in my opinion and we get ourselves back in it."
The Flames couldn't convert the game-winner on two power plays in the final 10 minutes, including a five-on-three with 4:29 left when Garvin blocked a shot by Shartz from the top of the right circle. Then, after killing a Golden Grizzlies' penalty, Liberty missed a golden opportunity on a three-on-one counterattack started by Hayes, who crashed into the cage along with an Oakland defender before Roberts could get off his shot.
"We had our opportunities, we had power plays, but our guys are working hard and drawing penalties," Handy said. "That was a key factor for us tonight, the work ethic was there. We had our work boots on."
Finally, in overtime, Liberty cashed in on the game's first power-play goal when Garvin stole the puck back from Oakland forward Patrick Smiatacz and Schartz received a short feed from Hayes and ripped a wrist shot into the top right corner of the cage, capping the dramatic comeback with 1:58 left in the five-minute sudden-death overtime period. For the game, the Flames outshot their guests, 43-38.
"Down a couple of goals, we stuck together," Hayes said. "The defensive zone was a little shaky but if we tightened that up, we knew we'd win and that's exactly what we did. It took a lot of hard work and we stuck together. That was huge for us. It was awesome."
Hayes, who visited Liberty during the Nov. 13 "Midnight Mayhem" matchup against Delaware and transferred in for the second semester, is now 2-0 playing on the Flames' home ice.
"Every home game is huge and the two I have played in have been amazing," he said. "I feed off the crowd. I love it and they feed off us, it's great. There is no place better to play."
The two teams will be back at LaHaye for Saturday's rematch, when the puck again drops at 7 p.m.
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer
Liberty senior Steven Bellew (left) puts pressure on Oakland goalie Anthony Munoz. He played with his brother Jimmy Bellew, a former Flame ('04) and veteran of four tours of duty to the Middle East with the U.S. Army, in attendance on Military Appreciation Night at the LaHaye Ice Center.
