Liberty University Club Sports
ACHA National Tournament
Top-seeded DII Flames ousted in pool play after upstart No. 4-seeded Iowa goes 3-0
3/20/2023 12:40:06 PM | Men's D2 Hockey
Renewed energy and determination as well as better focus and execution from Liberty University’s ACHA Division II men’s hockey team helped it to bounce back from Friday night’s opening-round loss to Iowa to shut out Utah State, 5-0, in Saturday’s second round of the ACHA National Championships at the New England Sports Center in Marlborough, Mass.
“Tonight, we played a lot more like who we are,” Flames Head Coach Ben Hughes said. “Our systems and just our overall habits and what we’ve done for every game up to this point, I just think we played like ourselves today.”
However, Liberty (26-7-1), seeded first in its pool, knew going into the game against the No. 3-seeded Aggies (24-13-8), that it had already been mathematically eliminated after the No. 4-seeded Hawkeyes also upset No. 2 Northeastern on Saturday.
“It wasn’t easy for us to play today’s game, knowing the outcome of the other game,” Hughes said. “Our goal was to do what we knew we had to do and that was to win the game and not have any goals against, because that (would) be a tiebreaker for us to put ourselves in a position to move on to the next round. It’s number of wins, head to head results, and goals against (in that order). We set ourselves up to move on to the next round had it still been in our fate, so I’m really proud of what we did (Saturday), especially compared to (Friday).”
The Flames set the pace early against Utah State and cashed in for the first goal on a redirected shot from the left point through traffic off the stick of graduate defenseman Alex Norwinski, assisted by sophomore forward Josh Sherwood and graduate forward Josh Malin.
Liberty then continued to dictate the tempo throughout the second and third periods, capitalizing on three power-play goals and one at even strength. Freshman forward Josh Martin doubled the Flames’ lead off a feed from junior forward Roman Lamoureux with 16:21 left in the second period.
Then, back on the man advantage, Nathan Mulder connected off a pass from fellow freshman defenseman Logan Starkey with a bar-down wrist shot from the top of the left circle at the 10:35 mark, stretching Liberty’s advantage to 3-0.
Freshman forward Thomas Kayner netted both goals in the third period, the first just over a minute into the action off an assist from Norwinski. Finally, in the closing seconds of a power play with 15:50 remaining in regulation, the Flames capped the scoring on a point-blank putback by Kayner in front off an initial shot by sophomore forward Rece Poulin.
Liberty more than doubled the Aggies in shots, 38-17, and Flames senior goalie Stephen Sanders made 17 saves to post his third shutout of the year, lowering his 2.08 goals-against average and improving his 92.3 save percentage.
“Our offense kind of set the tone today,” Hughes said. “Usually, whenever you’re playing a lot of offense, you don’t have to play defense as much. Stephen did a great job and they probably would have put a few up on the scoreboard had he not made a couple good saves.”
Sophomore goalie Lane Skon, the Southeast Region Player of the Year (15-2 with a 1.96 GAA and 92.4 SP going into nationals), nearly replicated the feat in Sunday’s final round of pool play against Northeastern. He made 38 saves as the Huskies outshot the Flames 39-34, but lost his shutout bid in the final 1:28 of regulation as Andrew Godfrey netted the golden goal on a power play for a 1-0 season-ending setback after the two teams had split their Dec. 2-3 series at the LaHaye Ice Center.
The Flames hope to return 10 freshmen and eight sophomores from their 21-man roster next season — only losing Norwinski, Malin, and Sanders — for another shot at their first national championship.
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer
