Liberty University Club Sports
Adrian College
Flames celebrate first win in two months, salvage split with No. 2 Bulldogs in a shootout
2/4/2023 8:14:00 PM | Men's D1 Hockey
Popcorn was on the house for all who supported Gleaning For The World's "Teddy Bear Brigade" by tossing their prized stuffed animals onto the ice after Liberty University's No. 5-ranked ACHA Division I men's hockey team scored its first goal of Saturday afternoon's rematch with No. 2 Adrian College at the LaHaye Ice Center.
That party on the ice spilled over into a long-awaited and highly anticipated post-game celebration for the Flames (14-10-1), who salvaged a split in the series with a 4-3 shootout victory, ending a five-game losing skid — their longest since dropping six in a row in Fall 2015.
"It was important for our confidence to win that game," Liberty Head Coach Kirk Handy said. "I thought our guys played very, very well in a game with different swings of emotion."
In the pre-game pep talk, Handy lit a fire under the Flames to stoke their intensity level as they prepared to battle the Bulldogs.
"We're calling it intentional urgency," Handy said of the theme of the day. "Not panic, but it's a focused attention to our details. We had a great start tonight and when mistakes happened, we didn't get down on one another, we just kind of tried to keep the focus on where it needed to be, staying off the other team and the officials and just focus on our task at hand and I believe if we do that, we're a very good hockey team."
Adrian College (25-3-1), ranked No. 2 in ACHA Division I, was on the verge of overtaking Minot State in the No. 1 slot after the Beavers lost their first game of the season on Friday night at No. 3 Ohio. The Flames will battle both of those teams over the final two weekends of the regular season. To deal the Bulldogs their second of three setbacks this season was a moral victory.
"It felt great," Flames senior forward Brett Gammer said. "Obviously, the guys were in a bit of a slide there. We strung a few losses together, which was tough to see, but we rebounded really well today, and I was proud of how the guys fought."
Jacob Kalandyk struck first, triggering the onslaught of stuffed animal sacrifices on the ice with a snipe of a wrist shot from the right circle that beat Adrian goalie Noah Decottignies glove-side to the top right corner. Kalandyk was assisted by a beautiful fast-break feed across the slot from fellow junior forward Truett Olson, who had chased down an outlet pass from senior forward Jackson Vercellono along the left boards after a steal by senior defenseman and head captain Colin Baird in the corner.
"Kaly's got a great shot, probably one of the best on the team, and it was great to see him do that," Gammer said.
After the teams traded successful first-period penalty kills, Liberty senior goalie Hunter Virostek (48 saves) stuffed a breakaway shot from the top of the right circle by Tyler Fyfe. The Flames then capitalized on their last power-play opportunity of the period, 13 seconds into the two-minute penalty, when Baird sent a short pass to junior forward Jason Foltz at the top of the right circle where he dished it to senior forward and alternate captain Matt Bartel for a sharp-angled slapshot inside the left post, doubling Liberty's lead to 2-0 at the 1:59 mark.
"Our power play had been struggling so that was a huge goal," Handy said. "Last night we were unable to do that and today we were."
Seconds after the Flames completed a PK to start the second period, the Bulldogs nearly got on the scoreboard with a putback from the right crease that struck off of the crossbar before Virostek covered the puck near the goal line. At the 16:05 mark, freshman defenseman Laz Kaebel nearly finished Kalandyk's crossing pass from the left boards, but his point-blank backhand was gloved by Decottignies.
Five minutes later, Gammer had back-to-back quality scoring chances denied by Decottignies from close range after freshman forward Sam Feemster's diving poke in the high slot lifted the puck to junior forward Kam Ottenbreit in the slot to Gammer in the right crease, where he lifted his wrist shot just over the cage.
"When you come that close to scoring, it's always a little bit hard, but you've just got to stay positive and try not dwell on the missed opportunity," Gammer said. "We stuck with it pretty good and I was proud of the way the guys didn't get down on ourselves. We stayed positive on the bench and just did a good job of staying focused on the task at hand."
Virostek was called for delay of game for coming out of the cage to clear a puck out of the high slot into the crowd, but he stood tall on the PK, making a sprawling kick save of a shot in the left crease off a dangerous pass through the slot and back-to-back pad saves of shots from the left side before a deflected shot caromed off the left post and bounced out.
"Hunter was just incredible for us," Gammer said. "We're super thankful that he can play the way he does and he did today."
However, moments after freshman defenseman Colten Kovich made a poke check while sliding on his stomach through the circle to break up a potential threat, the Bulldogs' Sebastian Smith intercepted an a pass just inside the blue line and skated through the left circle before rifling a wrist shot past Kovich and Virostek top-shelf, trimming the deficit to 2-1 24.4 seconds before the second intermission.
Then, just over three minutes into the third, with the Bulldogs on the power play, leading scorer Connor Smith received an assist across the high slot from defenseman Dakota Bohn and rocketed a slapshot from the top of the left circle past Virostek inside the lower-left post.
With the teams skating 4-on-4, Liberty seized a 3-2 lead when Ottenbreit skated the puck up the right wing and left it for freshman defenseman Reid Bogenholm, whose shot from the top of the right circle glanced off the skate of Adrian defenseman Sheldon Nolan right to Gammer, who ripped a wrister from the top of the left circle past Decottignies inside the lower right post.
"Gammer is underrated," Handy said. "He shows up, plays a ton of minutes on the PK, plays hard shifts every time he's out there. He's really a veteran leader for us out there and he scores a big goal for us today."
Adrian netted its second equalizer when Sam Spaedt shoveled in a putback of Dylan Gajewski's short-ranged shot through the slot with 5:19 remaining in regulation.
Following a scoreless 5:00 overtime, that included two minutes of 4-on-3 play for the Flames, the teams went to a shootout and Virostek repelled back-to-back chances by Sebastian Smith and Gajewski with Foltz and Kaebel beating Decottignies on consecutive shots inside the left post and the top-right corner, respectively. That set off the victory parade as the Flames won for the first time in more than two months, since salvaging a split with Maryville on Dec. 3.
"It was huge," Handy said. "Hunter stood tall for us today and showed why he's one of the top goalies in the country. Laz (Kaebel) is a guy who's continued to learn, continued to get better every day, so that (game winning goal) was a huge confidence-booster for him, too. He's a good player for us and he showed it there, him and Foltz, on the shootout."
"Those are some clutch guys and we're happy to have them step up in big moments like that and put those goals in for us," Gammer added.
Liberty was outshot, 51-31, for the game, but never trailed.
After having next weekend off, the Flames will host Ohio on Feb. 17-18 and Minot on Feb. 24-25 to end the regular season and establish their seeding for the March 16-21 DI National Championships near Boston.
"We'll definitely have our work cut out for us the next few weekends, but that's the way we want it," Handy said. "We want to make sure they're good, hard games down the stretch like we're going to have at the national tournament."
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Video by Patrick Strawn/Club Sports Director of Video & Media
