Liberty University Club Sports
College of Charleston
DIII Flames climb to record-high No. 7 in CHF national rankings
2/9/2023 9:06:00 AM | Men's D3 Hockey
Competing in the College Hockey Federation for the second season, Liberty University's Division III men's hockey team rose three spots to No. 7 out of 59 teams in this week's CHF National Rankings after sweeping the College of Charleston (S.C.) by 10-2 and 10-1 scores on Friday and Saturday, respectively, on the strength of 11 power-play goals. The dominant showing ended a skid for the Flames (14-5), who had ended the fall semester on an 11-game winning streak but started the new year by losing three of its first four.
"Those games are hard to get up for, but we challenged the guys to play as a team and everyone would be rewarded," Liberty Head Coach Josh Graham said. "Almost everyone contributed at least a point, and Caleb Kovak, one of our freshmen forwards, scored his first goal and (defenseman) Graham (Wood) had his first hat trick, so that was good to see. (Sophomore forward) Christian Garofolo and (senior forward) Kenny Fogarty, who eclipsed 100 points for his career in our first game at Delaware (a 9-2 win), they have been rolling, so it is exciting to see everyone contribute and play well."
The Flames' success on special teams helped them pull away, with Fogarty scoring two power-play goals in the first period of Saturday's second game. including the game-winner, before Wood netted two of his three goals during a five-minute major penalty assessed to the Cougars in the second period.
"Our power play was lights-out, scoring four times on Friday and seven on Saturday," Graham said. "That really helped, scoring more than half of our goals on the man advantage."
Liberty junior goalie Kyle Wesbury made 24 saves in the opener and 22 in the rematch.
Graham said the team has righted its ship after starting the spring semester off sluggishly.
"We've really been focusing on correcting mistakes from last semester, habits that we wanted to fix," he said. "We are working on defensive areas of our game and seeing improvements with breakouts and in our defensive zone which has resulted in our team playing better."
Last season, the Flames entered the inaugural CHF National Championships seeded No. 12 out of 32 teams, but was eliminated after finishing 0-3 in a pool that included then No. 28 Charleston, which has since dropped to No. 48 with its 2-10-1 record. This year, if Liberty can remain in the top 8 in next week's final national ranking, it will receive a top seed in one of eight four-team pools at the March 10-15 national tournament in West Chester, Pa., and have a better shot of advancing to the quarterfinals.
Before that, the top-seeded Flames will contend for their first ACCHL Tournament crown as a Division III team, at the eight-team event that will likely include all but Charleston and Maryland from the 10-team conference, on March 3-5 at the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Fairgrounds. The top four teams there will receive autobids to nationals.
"Once all the conference tournaments are finished, the final pools for CHF nationals will be released," Graham said. "Every conference gets a set amount of autobids and we just need to win our first game and finish in the final four to get one. Either way, if we are still ranked seventh then, we would receive one of the six at-large bids."
This weekend, the Flames will take to the road again to play Saturday at 4:30 p.m. and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. at ACCHL member High Point (12-6-1, ranked No. 37) in Greensboro, N.C. Liberty will return to the LaHaye Ice Center to face Appalachian State in its final regular-season series on Feb. 25-26 with both games set for 1:30 p.m. including Sunday's Senior Day, when the Flames will salute its six senior skaters.
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer
