Liberty University Club Sports
Miami University
DII Flames send RedHawks packing with first two setbacks in home sweep
11/8/2021 5:41:00 PM | Men's D2 Hockey
For the fourth time this season, Liberty University's ACHA Division II men's hockey team dealt a team its first defeat, sweeping visiting Miami (Ohio) University by 5-1 and 3-2 scores Saturday and Sunday at the LaHaye Ice Center.
Before downing the RedHawks (12-2), the Flames (11-1) won two out of three games from reigning ACHA DII national champion University of Mary and single games against Florida Gulf Coast and UMass-Amherst in the first two rounds of the Liberty Fall Tournament. Liberty is expected to debut at No. 1 in the Southeast Region and possibly all of ACHA DII when the rankings are released this week.
"We're pretty battle-tested," Flames Head Coach Ben Hughes said. "We've played some of the best teams out there and we still have a couple more. We've still got to play NC State twice and Florida Gulf Coast twice more in the spring semester. For us, the important thing is to just keep getting better."
Liberty was not at full strength with a couple key players out with injuries.
"We definitely had to change some things up," Hughes said. "Our normal guys stepped up, guys like (forwards) Tim Doe, (Peyton) Nash, (and Trevor) Granzow, and JD (George) and Maxx (Mitchell), all of those guys on the back end. Credit to Lane (Skon) who made his first two starts in goal and made some really good saves."
In Saturday night's opener, a 9:45 p.m. start after the DI men's game that went to a shootout, Liberty held the RedHawks scoreless on 10 power-play opportunities and broke open a 1-1 tie by scoring the game's last four goals.
Sophomore forward Roman Lamoureux started the scoring with a power-play goal assisted by Granzow at the 11:21 mark before Miami tied it up three minutes later.
Freshman forward Cooper Neal put the Flames on top to stay off an assist from Mitchell with 59 seconds left in the first before Liberty padded its lead to 4-1 with second-period goals by graduate forward Josh Malin and Doe and senior forward Justin Barstead capped the scoring in the third.
In Sunday's rematch, senior forward Darren Carter started the scoring off an assist from Malin before the RedHawks stormed back to seize a 2-1 lead by the end of the first period. Neal netted the equalizer off an assist from Lamoureux less than 2:00 into the second before Doe scored the game-winner 1:40 later off feeds from Nash and Granzow.
"They came out strong and it was definitely a harder struggle for us (than Saturday's opener)," Lamoureux said. "We just had to bear down harder. We came out 110 percent in the first 10 minutes of the second period before we stumbled and picked it back up in the third and kept battling."
Liberty has next weekend off before traveling to face the University of Mary, Davenport, and host Lindenwood in a showcase in St. Louis the weekend before Thanksgiving.
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Videos by Patrick Strawn/Club Sports Director of Video & Media
