Lady Flames overcome adversity to capture fifth national crown in a row
3/20/2023 6:57:00 PM | Women's D1 Hockey
Clinching an ACHA Division I record fifth straight national championship was anything but a given for Liberty University's No. 1-ranked DI women's hockey team over the past three days at the New England Sports Center in Marlborough, Mass.
The Lady Flames (26-2-1) survived back-to-back one-goal games capped by a 3-2 triumph over No. 3 Minot State (22-10-3), one of three teams to beat them this season.
"Today's (championship) is very special and there were certainly a lot more moments where it didn't feel like it was our year," Lady Flames sixth-year Head Coach Chris Lowes said. "We've had other years that have gone very much to plan. We've gotten leads early, we've rested players. This year was just whatever we had to do."
Liberty is the first team at any ACHA level to win five championships in a row, surpassing Penn State's Division I men (1998-2003) and Life University's Division II men (1997-2002) who both won five titles over six seasons.
"We just had to play our style of hockey," said Lady Flames graduate forward and head captain Shelby Bradford, who like Lowes won her fifth title in six seasons, with COVID-19 cancelling an almost sure-bet championship run in 2020. "We couldn't play to their level. We had to play our style with discipline, intensity, and execution and get the job done."
Sophomore defenseman Madison Glynn recorded all three Liberty goals, netting the equalizer in the final minute of the first period, the go-ahead goal early in the second, and the game-winner in the third.
"That's the first hat trick of my entire life," she said. "It was unreal. We were completely fired up for today. We were rolling. Every aspect of our team was going."
"She was buzzing," sophomore forward Haley Battles added. "Everyone was ready to go. We battled hard last night, had a bunch of adversity, down 4-1 (in a 5-4 overtime win over No. 4 Adrian). But we knew we just needed to grind it out and here we are, national champions, baby. It was a great feeling, for sure. All glory to God."
Both teams generated quality scoring chances in the opening minutes of play with Lady Flames junior goalie Amanda Storey and Lady Beavers goalie Haylie Biever making some clutch saves before Minot forward Megan Norris slammed home a putback of a right circle shot by defenseman Denali Sigurdson to start the scoring at the 11:06 mark of the first period.
Battles was taken down on a 1-on-2 break with just under a minute left in the first period and the Lady Flames capitalized immediately to even the score with 53 seconds to go. Glynn took a quick pass from Bradford off the restart and sneaked a wrist shot from the top of the right circle through traffic past Biever into the top-left corner of the net.
Glynn struck again at the 17:18 mark of the second period, receiving a faceoff win from junior forward Rianna Spanier and beating Biever with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle to lift Liberty to a 2-1 lead.
Just over three minutes later, Glynn nearly completed her hat trick, striking the top-right corner of the cage with a shot from the right circle. Liberty had another scoring chance from the left crease moments later dance along the crossbar before bouncing out.
Storey stopped two high-percentage Minot State shots before Battles and Lady Beavers forward Mia McKee were stuffed on wraparounds at the right and left posts, respectively.
Minot State threatened twice more around the 6:00 mark, including a putback by Gillian Gervin in the left crease, but Storey held her ground, and stood on her head, as the Lady Beavers continued to mount pressure around the cage. After near misses on the other end by senior forwards Brityn Fussy in the right crease and Linzy Jedrzejek on a rush down the slot, Storey smothered a loose puck in a scrum in the left crease after saving back-to-back shots from point-blank range.
Minot outshot Liberty, 31-25, for the game and Storey made 29 saves to finish 3-0 in the tournament and 14-1 on the year.
"Amanda was unreal," Glynn said. "She has been unreal for us all season long."
Early in the third period, Storey made a spectacular save of a shot by Jordan Kulbida off a cross-crease pass before stuffing her driving shot from deep in the right circle moments later.
Fussy, Jedrzejek, and Battles narrowly missed shots and Fussy was taken down on a shorthanded breakaway with 10:30 remaining in regulation, putting the teams in 4-on-4 play. The Lady Flames capitalized 17 seconds later when Glynn, the championship finals player of the game, completed her hat trick unassisted with a bottle-popper into the top shelf after slicing into the left crease, padding the lead to 3-1 with 10:13 to go.
But the Lady Beavers weren't finished, and Kulbida potted a shot through traffic from high in the left circle that struck off the leg of Liberty freshman defenseman Emerson Oakes and into the back of the net with 3:32 to play, trimming the deficit to 3-2. The Lady Flames showed their championship resilience down the stretch, with Glynn diving head-first as she retreated into Liberty's circle to break up a Minot rush and sophomore forward Brielle Fussy blocking a shot from the high slot in the closing seconds.
"Everyone was ready," Battles said. "All the energy, blocked shots, pucks deep, everyone was going. Everyone just laid it out on the line."
"Pretty incredible performance," Lowes added. "We played a really good game of hockey today, probably our most structured and we looked like we knew what we were doing. This week, we've been a bit of a chaotic mess and we've found a way. But, as a coach, it was great to see today that we looked very composed, and it paid off for us."
The Lady Flames found an extra measure of intensity and took their game to the next level playing as one unit, inspired by junior forward Carly Glover, who went down with a lower-body injury against Adrian in the semifinals.
"We realized that we all had to work together if we wanted to pull this off and that's what we did," Glynn said. "It definitely was an amazing team effort. Everybody pulled together. Everybody did everything they could. We put bodies on the line. I mean Carly Glover was out, but she did everything in her power while she was still on the ice to be there for the team, and even off the ice she was being a motivator.
"Everybody that has battled injuries all season long has just put everything on the line," she added. "This was our end goal and this was what we wanted so everyone knew what it would take to get there."
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Video by Patrick Strawn/Club Sports Director of Video & Media
