Liberty University Club Sports Athletics
Flames succumb to Shark attack, fall to NCAA DI Long Island
1/23/2021 12:00:00 AM | Men's D1 Hockey
A day after staging its first victory over a full-fledged NCAA Division I program, Liberty University's ACHA Division I men's hockey team let Long Island University off the hook in Saturday afternoon's second game, allowing the Sharks to salvage a series split with a 4-0 win at the LaHaye Ice Center.
The Flames were shut out for the second time in five games this season. Liberty was also blanked, 7-0, in the second game of a sweep on Nov. 13 at Adrian (Mich.) College, which also dealt the Flames their last shutout at the LIC, 1-0 on Oct. 26, 2019.
Liberty (2-3) was outshot by the Sharks (4-6) by a 40-24 margin, with sophomore goalie Hunter Virostek making 36 saves after his 50 stops in Friday night's opener.
"We didn't get the offense we were looking for today," Flames Head Coach Kirk Handy said. "We had chances on the power play and five-on-three and you hope you'd find the back of the net, but that's the game."
Liberty generated a few quality scoring chances on its five-on-three power play in the first period, with senior defenseman Garrett Nelson clanging a shot from the high slot off the left post at the 6:45 mark. But Long Island nearly scored on a four-on-five counterattack and successfully killed off the rest of the Flames' man advantage.
Following the scoreless first period, Liberty kept the Sharks at bay on a five-minute major penalty midway through the second, after junior forward Josh Fricks was called for roughing on an explosive full-body check that leveled a Sharks forward on transition near mid-ice.
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| LU sophomore forward Brett Gammer takes a faceoff. |
"Our penalty kill was fantastic this weekend," Handy said. "(Assistant) Coach (Jonathan) Chung has got that dialed in. He's doing a great job with them."
However, soon after the Flames' extinguished the five-minute major, Long Island netted three goals in a span of exactly 10 minutes to seize control of the contest.
With 5:21 left in the second period, after Virostek blocked a point-blank shot by Tanner Hopps set up by Tanner Schachle in the left crease, Sharks forward Zack Bross worked a give-and-go with Schachle through the left circle before chipping his backhanded shot from near the left post past Virostek for a 1-0 advantage.
Early in the third, Long Island goalie Vincent Purpura blocked a shot by Flames senior defenseman Chaydan Lauber off a fast-break feed from freshman forward Jason Foltz before Mitchell Meek sent a cross-crease feed to fellow Sharks defenseman Mat Harris. He was checked from behind before getting a shot off, but Bross swooped onto the puck right beside him and lifted a wrist shot into the upper netting for a 2-0 lead at the 17:12 mark.
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| Senior defenseman Garrett Nelson starts a fast break. |
Less than two minutes later, with 15:21 remaining in regulation, the Sharks extended their lead to 3-0 with a fast-break top-shelf finish by Nolan Welsh off a cross-crease assist from fellow forward Aaron White, who had deked the puck around a sliding Lauber.
Finally, with 3:29 to go, the Sharks put their win on ice on Christian Rajic's slap shot from the high slot off Welsh's short pass from the left wing.
"They capitalized on some opportunities they had and some breakdowns we had," Handy said. "It will be a great opportunity for us to learn from watching the video and to get better from that."
Though the Flames couldn't complete the sweep on their home ice, Handy was pleased with the overall effort.
"I thought our guys had a real high degree of maturity on the bench tonight," he said. "We didn't get caught up in the stuff after the whistle and we played hard between whistles. That's all we want our guys to do and they were a great representation of what we're looking for out there."
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| Flames senior forwards Cole Gammer and Quinn Ryan maneuver around Sharks forward Jack Quinn. |
Liberty next travels to face Ohio for the first two of eight matchups this semester, next Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 2-3, in Athens, Ohio, before returning to the LIC for a Feb. 12-13 series against Missouri State.
"This (LIU series was) huge for us, absolutely," Handy said. "It prepares us for a high level of hockey, a level that we know we can play at week-in and week-out. The Ohio games are going to be awesome."
Handy announced that former Flames forward Sam Carlson, originally from Alaska, is returning to the roster to play the rest of the season in his final semester at Liberty.
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Video by Patrick Strawn/Club Sports Director of Video & Media
