Flames cap sweep of Syracuse with another three-goal win, stretching streak to nine games

Saturday, January 20

Lynchburg, Va.

11:59 PM

Liberty University Club Sports

Syracuse University

Flames cap sweep of Syracuse with another three-goal win, stretching streak to nine games

1/21/2024 9:25:00 AM | Men's D1 Hockey

Liberty overcame a 2-1 deficit after the first period by getting goals from seven different scorers in the 7-4 win in front of a sold-out Midnight Mayhem crowd.

Seven different players netted goals to help No. 8-ranked Liberty University's ACHA Division I men's hockey team extend its winning streak to nine games in front of a sell-out crowd early Sunday morning at the LaHaye Ice Center. The Flames turned a 2-1 deficit after the first period into a 5-2 lead going into the third and completed a series sweep with a 7-4 triumph.

"I'm going to miss it," senior forward Jason Foltz said of playing in front of the Liberty fans on hand for the third and final Midnight Mayhem of the season, which sold out on Wednesday. "This was my last one. Nothing beats playing in front of your home crowd when you've got people cheering for you, so it's awesome. We had a good turnout. (Friday's) first game was almost sold out, so shout out to the fans. They always come out and support us and that really sparks a lot of our energy out on the ice."

Sam-Feamster-faceoff — Sophomore forward Sam Feamster takes a faceoff against the Orange on Sunday.

A team still recovering from jetlag after its 10-day trip to Finland from Jan. 4-14 and left shorthanded by injuries to two players with two others out sick and two serving one-game suspensions for fighting in Friday's opener still managed to extend its winning streak to nine games.

"We put our guys through a lot and we knew it was going to be difficult," Liberty Head Coach Kirk Handy said. "You go on a mission trip, you go overseas, you adjust to the hours and then we mess it up again by playing a midnight game. It's not going to be pretty, but I am super proud of our guys. I thought they battled tonight. We had a lot of guys show up in different roles and spots than maybe they were used to, and it's big for us to win two games by the margins we did. We keep the train rolling. That's nine in a row. Let's keep moving the train along here."

Liberty (14-6-1) outshot Syracuse (10-10-1) by a 44-29 margin and graduate goalie Hunter Virostek made 25 saves for the Flames, who finished 3-for-7 on power-play opportunities while the Orange converted 2 of their 5.

"Our power play was great all weekend," Handy said. "(Assistant) Coach Dan (Berthiaume) had the right guys in there and I thought they were fantastic. We scored six goals on the weekend, and that's a sign you're doing something right. A big, big part of any successful team is your special teams and it was strong tonight."

After getting used to playing with more finesse during three games on Olympic-sized ice in Finland, the Flames were forced into a harder-checking style of showdown with former ESCHL rival Syracuse in town.

Ottenbreit-Orange-pileup — Kam Ottenbreit controls the puck in front of a Syracuse defenseman's spear attempt.

"They definitely took us out of our comfort zone and made us play more of a physical style," Foltz said. "We're usually just a more skilled, quick, fast team and we had to change it up a little bit and be more physical on our end, which was good to see because you're going to need that at the national tournament."

The Flames came up empty on their first power-play opportunity before freshman defenseman Nicholas Pomerleau skated across the red line along the boards and through the left circle before cutting into the slot and depositing his shot through the five hole into the back of the net as he dove past goalie Christopher Spano onto the ice for a 1-0 Liberty lead at the 13:51 mark in the first period.

"Nick Pomerleau scored a real nice goal to get us going," Handy said. "He's been a good player for us. He battles every night. You know what you're going to get from him."

With 11:00 remaining in the first period, Liberty was assessed two penalties on the same play — one on Foltz and one on Handy for contesting the call from the bench. That put Syracuse on a 5-on-3 advantage and the Orange capitalized to net the equalizer with 10:07 to go when defenseman Connor Chesner fired a shot through the left circle that sneaked past Virostek into the top shelf.

"You're going to have some mistakes and we had some tonight, including one on my end, taking a bench minor," Handy said. "You kind of battle those things through and I realized that. Our guys competed well."

"Their guy hit me in the neck and his stick was kind of wrapped around me and we were just tangled up and I somehow got a holding, so (Handy was) standing up for me knowing it was a bad call," Foltz said.

Seconds after senior forward Kris Bladen was cross-checked into the Syracuse cage with no penalty assessed, the Orange converted the go-ahead goal on a fast-break, with forward Brock Alvers skating onto a lead pass from Sam Hutchinson beyond the Flames' defense and slipping a shot past Virostek from close range for a 2-1 advantage at the 7:53 mark.

Kirk-Handy-contests-official — Flames Head Coach Kirk Handy confers with an official while surrounded by his players.

The Flames capitalized on their first power play to net the equalizer with 19:13 to go in the second period when Foltz and junior defenseman Kevin Bite set up leading scorer Jacob Kalandyk — who netted a hat trick in Friday night's opener — for a snipe of a sharp-angled shot in the left circle into the upper netting.

"Our power play was good tonight," Foltz said. "We were moving the puck well and saw their weaknesses that they had on their PK so we took advantage of that, made sure that we could get the passes through the seam to each other and it worked out really well."

Just 47 seconds later, senior forward Brett Gammer won a right-circle faceoff back to sophomore defenseman Grant Morton before deftly redirecting Morton's shot from the right point into the top right corner of the net to lift Liberty to a 3-2 advantage with 18:26 to play in the period.

The Flames went back on the power play moments later and Foltz sent a pass across the slot to senior forward DJ Schwenke who ripped a wrist shot over Spano's shoulder at the 16:56 mark to make it 4-2.

Liberty extended its advantage to 5-2 by converting quickly on a 5-on-3 power play with Pomerleau and freshman forward Ryan Finch dishing short passes to senior forward and head captain Matt Bartel who waltzed in to pocket a left-circle shot inside the right post with 9:22 left in the second.

Syracuse cut the gap to 5-3 with 15:54 remaining in regulation when Jack Wren rifled a shot from the top of the left circle over Virostek's blocker into the top-left corner of the cage.

Ryan-Finch-boards — Freshman forward Ryan Finch beats an Orange defenseman to a puck by the boards.

Moments later, Bite received assists from Kalandyk and sophomore defenseman Colten Kovich and skated unchecked through the left circle before firing a wrist shot into the top-right corner of the cage to give the Flames a three-goal cushion and match Friday night's final score with 14:13 to play.

Liberty padded its advantage to 7-3 four minutes later when Kam Ottenbreit won a left-circle faceoff to fellow senior forward Joe Clark in the slot where he ripped a short-range wrist shot into the top-right corner with 10:12 to go.

The Orange still had some juice left and cut the deficit back to three goals when Matthew Mahoney took a pass out of the slot from Brett Edgren and unleashed a shot from the left circle a split second before being checked to the ice by Flames defenseman Nate Cox and it beat Virostek inside the left post. But Liberty's defense tightened for the final 7:55 and kept the winning streak alive.

After hosting the Orange from upstate New York, the Flames travel to Long Island to challenge another ESCHL team this weekend at Stony Brook with 10 games to go before the March 7-12 ACHA DI National Championships in St. Louis.

"It will be good to keep the winning streak going this weekend," Foltz said. "I'm a big, firm believer that we can finish out the rest of this season winning out. Since we started the streak that we've been on, it just motivates us (to finish it off)."

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Videos by Patrick Strawn/Club Sports Director of Video & Media