Lady Flames stage miracle comeback against Bulldogs to keep title hopes alive
3/20/2023 12:18:00 AM | Women's D1 Hockey
Liberty University's No. 1-ranked, four-time defending ACHA Division I national champion women's hockey team scored twice in the final five minutes of regulation to tie No. 4-ranked Adrian College before keeping their dreams of a fifth consecutive crown alive with a 5-4 overtime "Miracle on Ice," Sunday night at the New England Sports Center.
"We're using up our nine lives," Lady Flames Head Coach Chris Lowes said after surviving Miami (Ohio), 2-1 in Saturday's quarterfinals and beating the Bulldogs in a rematch of their 2018 ACHA DI final. "Really, my heart goes out to Adrian. They're one of our biggest rivals and our most respected opponents. This sport can be cruel (and) they earned that win. That being said, I am totally proud of our girls. That's leadership, that's our vets, that's our captains, just character and resilience. Really, we played a pretty sloppy game, but it was kind of one of those games that was back and forth, and we found a way."
The semifinal win against all odds puts the Lady Flames (25-2-1) in Monday's 1 p.m. championship game against No. 3-seeded Minot State, a 1-0 winner over No. 2 Midland, which had ended Liberty's three-year run as WMCH Tournament champions last month in St. Louis.
"We were all very motivated and committed in the third period," said senior forward and alternate captain Brityn Fussy, who scored the game's first goal and assisted two others, including the equalizer by graduate forward and head captain Shelby Bradford late in the third period. "We definitely prayed … and we just said, 'Whatever it takes.' We just told each other stick to what you know and basically play our game and eventually it will go in."
After struggling on the power play in the first period, when they gave up a shorthanded goal before failing to capitalize on a 5-on-3, the Lady Flames netted three consecutive goals with a 5-on-4 advantage, the first two by sophomore forward Haley Battles.
"(Battles is) amazing," Fussy said. "She knows how to put the puck away and just how to grind and she did a really good job … to get it in somehow."
Liberty lost junior forward Carly Glover to a lower-body injury early in the third period and played the remainder of the contest with added incentive to stage the dramatic comeback on her behalf.
"Especially when Carly went down, it was a big motivation to play for her, play for the Lord, and that's what kept us going," Fussy said. "This is the most adversity that we've seen, but we know how to deal with it. We know how to turn it around and get going again. It was really emotional and we wanted to bring the energy (and) win for her because she put her body on the line for us."
Fussy started the scoring after receiving a perfectly placed outlet pass from Glover beyond Adrian's line of defense and skating the puck around Bulldogs goalie Reid Barr before pocketing it from the right crease inside the left post just over five and a half minutes after the opening faceoff.
The Lady Flames appeared primed to build on their lead on a power play midway through the period, but instead gave up a shorthanded equalizer on a two-on-one counterattack with Macy Piche finishing a cross-crease pass from Tess McKerrow with 10:21 to play.
Adrian, which outshot Liberty, 30-28, for the game, continued to dominate on its penalty kill, squelching a full minute of a 5-on-3 advantage by the Lady Flames moments after its tying score to give the Bulldogs plenty of momentum going into the second period.
Just 18 seconds after the second-period faceoff, the Bulldogs seized a 2-1 lead when McKerrow received a short pass from Hailey Wiltshire and skated across the blue line and through the slot before lifting a wrist shot into the upper netting, over the glove of Liberty freshman goalie Alex Keith.
Then at the 16:59 mark, after a roughing penalty against Flames sophomore forward Zosia Adamek, Wiltshire took an outlet pass from Ashlynn Stitt for another Adrian breakaway, this time on the power play, and slipped a shot between the glove and body of Keith, stretching the Bulldogs' lead to 3-1.
With 4:22 to go before the second intermission, the Lady Flames turned the puck over at the blue line and Adrian extended its lead to 4-1 by capitalizing on a 3-on-1 odd-man rush with Piche finishing through the five hole of junior replacement goalie Amanda Storey.
"It definitely was an eye-opener just to see like, 'OK, we need to play the best of our best during this tournament or it can go very wrong very fast,'" Fussy said.
But Battles gave the Lady Flames a glimmer of hope with seven seconds left in the second period by finishing a power-play pass from Fussy with a wrist shot from deep in the right circle, trimming the deficit to 4-2 and shifting the momentum in Liberty's favor.
Glover's injury, on a collision with an Adrian player in its defensive zone, took a bit of wind out of the Lady Flames' sails, but they rekindled their energy for a final rush to the finish. With 19 seconds remaining on another Liberty power play, Battles struck again at the 4:57 mark, backhanding in senior defenseman Aislyn Stretch's shot from the point inside the right post to cut the gap to 4-3.
Then, with 4:20 to play, Lady Flames senior forward Linzy Jedrzejek was taken down in the slot, putting Liberty back on the power play for the seventh time on the night. Seven seconds later, Bradford, stationed in the right crease, tipped in Fussy's shot from the left circle into the back of the net, knotting the score at 4.
"I just knew to shoot low and shoot for a stick and Shelby was there and it was perfect," Fussy said. "She buried it."
After surviving a couple close calls early in the sudden-death overtime period, Liberty cashed in on a counterattack 2:42 into it when senior forward and alternate captain Yannick Truter received Bradford's feed across the slot and fired the winning slapshot into the back of the net.
"It was beautiful," Fussy said, noting that the shot was an answer to the Lady Flames' prayers.
"She's honestly an inspiration for our team," she added of Truter, who has battled through an injury of her own. "I'm surprised it had that much power, but she's a strong girl."
Fussy said the Lady Flames have learned whatever does not kill them only makes them stronger.
"We've definitely had a heart attack a few times, but it's good; it builds character," she said. "We know who we are and just coming together as a team, we knew how we needed to play."
Lowes credited players such as Battles, Fussy, and sophomore forward Brielle Fussy for getting the job done.
"It's the girls that earned it, girls moving their feet, girls that just battled all night long, just to get that moment to even have Yan (Truter) in that position to finish that goal is crazy, and it's a game that we'll all always remember."
The Lady Flames hope to have as memorable a final on Monday against Minot State (22-9-3), the second of three teams to defeat Liberty this season, starting with McKendree (Ill.), which ended its ACHA-record 57-game winning streak in January. Prior to taking two of three games in that series at the LaHaye Ice Center, Liberty had only met the Lady Beavers twice in their first two WMCH tournament finals in 2020 and 2021.
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Video by Patrick Strawn/Club Sports Director of Video & Media
