Liberty University Club Sports
NC State University
Flames erase 3-1 deficit before torching visiting Icepack, 8-4
9/19/2021 12:18:11 PM | Men's D1 Hockey
It was a clash between fire and ice late Saturday night at the LaHaye Ice Center (LIC), where Liberty University’s ACHA Division I men’s hockey team thawed out from an early frost and erupted for four goals in the second period before adding three more in the third to emerge with an 8-4 come-from-behind victory over North Carolina State, known as the Icepack.
NC State (1-1) put the Flames (2-0) in a 3-1 hole by the end of the first period, scoring all three goals in a span of five and a half minutes.
“Hats off to NC State,” Liberty Head Coach Kirk Handy said. “Those guys played great. We go down early there and have to fight our way back and that’s something that good teams learn how to do. To be honest, I was kind of glad we had to battle through adversity. You want to battle through that at the beginning of the year … so we can see how we can adjust and rebound.”
Flames senior forward Matt Bartel answered the call during a breakthrough span of 3:23 when he completed his first hat trick — tying the game at 3-3 before lifting Liberty to 4-3 and 5-4 leads.
“It was crazy,” Bartel said. “Back-to-back-to-back shifts there. The puck just was finding me and I was able to put it in so it was awesome, because it’s been a while since I’ve scored. I am so happy to be able to get back on the score sheet because I love scoring goals and overall just helping the team win.”
“Barty had a great game tonight for us,” Handy added. “We killed 21 minutes of penalties tonight and he was huge on the penalty kill. He had the most blocks on the team, a power play goal, maybe played the most minutes for us, was unbelievable on the faceoffs. That might have been the best game I’ve seen (him) play here.”
Just over two minutes after the opening faceoff, NC State forward Garrett Auriene collected the rebound of Cam Mazikowski’s shot from right circle and slammed it past Liberty junior goalie Tyler Myers.
A little more than a minute later, Flames senior defenseman and head captain Colin Baird tied it at 1-1 after taking passes from sophomore forwards Jason Foltz and Kris Bladen and skating into the top of the left circle before threading a shot through traffic in front of Icepack goalie Griffin Hunt.
But moments after that, NC State defenseman Victor Hugo’s shot from the point was deflected up in the air by Alex Vedetta to Chris Solomon in the right crease, where he batted it into the goal near the right post at the 14:13 mark.
Less than two minutes later, after a fast break, Parker Szerek dug the puck out from the back boards and bounced it off the back of Myers inside the left post, extending the Icepack’s lead to 3-1 and prompting Assistant Coach Dan Berthiaume to bring in junior goalie Cédric Le Sieur.
“Cédric comes in in a tough spot,” Handy said of Le Sieur, who made 30 saves as the Flames outshot the Icepack 41-36. “He’s sitting there on the bench and he has to come in in a tough situation. We’re down and he played really well for us.”
With 16:21 left in the second period, freshman forward Jacob Kalandyk skated the puck through the neutral zone and left it for senior forward Josh Fricks near the blue line. He waltzed into the right circle unchecked and fired a shot inside the left post, trimming the deficit to 3-2.
Back-to-back goals by Bartel in a span of 1 minute, 10 seconds lifted Liberty to its first lead at 4-3. On the first, Baird sent a pass across the blue line to freshman forward Matt Berezowski who launched a shot on goal from the high slot. Junior forward Brett Gammer controlled the rebound and backhanded the puck across to Bartel in the right crease where he blocked it with his skate and wristed it in with 12:49 left in the period.
“We have played together over the last two years quite a bit and it’s been tough to find chemistry together,” Bartel said of Gammer. “But I really think after this game, we played unreal and I’m really excited to continue to play with him and (sophomore forward DJ) Schwenke and really build on that.”
With 11:39 left in the second, Bartel struck again with the Flames on the power play when Kam Ottenbreit took a pass from fellow freshman forward Jackson Vercellono in the right corner and sneaked a pass across the crease to Bartel for a forehand finish in front, giving Liberty its first lead at 4-3.
The Icepack responded just 17 seconds later to even the game at 4-4 on a quick shot in the slot by Matt Miller off a faceoff won by Auriene in the Flames’ defensive zone. But Bartel answered the call once more, after Schwenke chased down a clearing pass in the right corner and spotted him slicing through the left circle. His one-timer pushed the Flames back in front at 5-4 with 9:26 left in the second period.
“I was screaming in and I was yelling for it and (Schwenke) saw me the last second and threaded the needle between two other guys there,” Bartel said. “It got through and I just got it off quick and it went in. It was awesome.”
“Today, he was flying,” Flames Associate Head Coach Jeff Boettger added of Bartel. “I just liked his fire. He had a high compete level tonight.”
Kalandyk gave the Flames a 6-4 cushion with 17:12 remaining in regulation after taking a short pass from Gammer and firing a shot from the top of the right circle as he skated down the right wing.
Then, with 9:04 to go and the Flames on a penalty kill, Schwenke intercepted a pass and went in one-on-one with Hunt for a shorthanded score, stretching Liberty’s lead to 7-4.
“I really liked that line,” Handy said. “Schwenke, Bartel, and Gammer were huge for us tonight. Schwenke had that shorthanded goal and those three guys killed the most penalties.”
Then, moments after the Flames stifled the Icepack’s power play unit, Foltz worked a cross-ice give-and-go with Vercellono on a fast break, taking the return pass and maneuvering through the right circle before threading the puck off a defenseman’s skate through the five hole of Griffin for the final score.
Bartel said it was critical for the team’s confidence to be able to overcome an early deficit and prevail in convincing fashion.
“It’s huge going forward for us that we faced some adversity like that early on in the season,” he said. “I think it will benefit us a lot because we know how to handle adversity now. It was really huge to find that spark in this game so going forward, we should be able to just push through it.”
Bartel said the boisterous, though only 50-percent capacity (due to COVID-19 restrictions at the LIC) fans gave the Flames the boost they needed to turn the tables on the Icepack.
“It’s definitely nice to have the crowd back in the building,” he said. “Last year, it was so tough to create our own energy and it was so dead in here. It just helps getting up for the game. There’s so much hype around it, even just before the game, we’re so excited to come play and we just feed off the crowd.”
Liberty will be off next weekend before hosting an Oct. 1-2 series against Michigan-Dearborn at the LIC.
“We’re going to have a good two weeks of practice, continue grinding and working on our game,” Bartel said. “We have a lot of things we can really sharpen up before those games. We’ll prepare and be ready to go.”
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Video by Patrick Strawn/Club Sports Director of Video & Media
