Flames head to New York for third straight series against ESCHL foe, struggling Seawolves

Riding a nine-game winning streak into this weekend's series at former ESCHL rival Stony Brook on Long Island, N.Y., Liberty University ACHA Division I men's hockey Head Coach Kirk Handy wants to see the Flames keep the train on the tracks and moving in the right direction.

"We have to keep our game simple," Handy told the Rock the Rink podcast team of Rett McGibbon, Patrick Strawn, Club Sports Assistant Athletic Director of Sports Performance Chris Kerr, and Annie Cory, sports editor of The Liberty Champion. "We can't over-complicate it and then hurt ourselves. It's getting back to pucks. It's clean breakouts out of our end. It's going through the neutral zone well. It's getting pucks in deep. It's us taking our game to another level. That's what we're really challenging our guys with."

He noted that this is the fifth to last series in the regular season and the team needs to continue building momentum as it prepares to peak at the March 7-12 ACHA DI National Championships in St. Louis.

"We have 10 games left before the national tournament and in 40-some days from now, we're going to be at nationals," Handy said. "It's not a long stretch. We need everyone dialed in. We need everyone focused. You're really starting to see, and you will see, the best of our program as we go here."

One takeaway from Liberty's 6-3, 7-4 sweep of Syracuse to open the spring semester was that the Flames need to limit their penalties after being called for 11 infractions in the first game and eight more fouls in the rematch.

"There was too much special teams, to be honest," Handy said. "One of the areas that we really have to clean up as we go down the stretch is we can't be in the (penalty) box as many times as we were this past weekend. Regardless of if you like the calls or you don't like the calls, they were called. We've got to deal with that and we've got to be better as a team."

Handy appreciated the response of players such as sophomores Laz Kaebel and Reid Bogenholm in defense of senior forward Jason Foltz after he was apparently boarded into the backboards in the second period of the first game, with no penalty assessed on the play. However, he said the sentence — which included game-and-a-half suspensions for both defensemen who had only returned from injury in December — was not worth the payback.

"I told our guys on Sunday morning I really liked how we battled," said Handy, who received a two-minute minor himself in response to what he considered a bad call on a penalty assessed to Foltz in the second game. "We don't want to take any bad penalties. Bad penalties a lot of times are the ones after the whistle, reactionary ones, ones in the offensive zone. Those are the ones we want to avoid as we move forward. We don't want the other team going to the power play more than three times in a game, so for us to have double that is not good."

Overall, he was pleased with the team's resilience, especially adjusting from the jetlag after returning from Finland the previous weekend and playing in the season's final Midnight Mayhem game in Sunday morning's rematch.

"It wasn't perfect, we made mistakes, but we still got the job done and we continued to move forward and we continued to stay on the roll that we were on before Christmas," Handy said, noting that spending so much time on special teams was not all bad. "Interesting enough, we scored 13 goals and six were on the power play, so the power play was humming. Great job to (Assistant) Coach Dan (Berthaiume) and the guys he had out there. They were executing it well."

Scouting Preview for Games 22-23: No. 7 Liberty (14-6-1) at Stony Brook (5-10-3), Friday at 8:30 p.m., Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at The Rinx. Both games will be streamed live on the Stony Brook YouTube channel.

All-Time Series: Liberty leads 38-18-3 after sweeping the series at the LaHaye Ice Center on Nov. 3-4. Traditionally a power in the ESCHL, Stony Brook is currently in last place in the conference standings. Previously, the Flames ended the Seawolves' four-year run as ESCHL champions by winning their first of three tournament titles in four years in 2017 and captured three consecutive regular-season championships from 2018-20 — clinching autobids to the ACHA DI National Championships — before returning to independent status in 2021.

Nate-Cox-Joe-Clark-Liberty-Stony-Brook — Flames defenseman Nate Cox and forward Joe Clark lead a breakout vs. Stony Brook.

Liberty Scouting Report: After sweeping Syracuse, the Flames moved back up to No. 7 in this week's ACHA DI national rankings, where they ended 2023 after stretching their winning streak to seven games. The Flames' offense is sparked by junior forward Jacob Kalandyk (15 goals, 5 power-play goals, 15 assists), who netted a hat trick and his third game winner in the opener against Syracuse, senior forwards Jason Foltz and Matt Bartel, who both have racked up 9 goals and 9 assists, junior defenseman Kevin Bite (5G, 13A), and graduate forward Jackson Vercellono (5G, 12A).

Defensively, aside from returning Kaebel and Bogenholm, juniors Colten Kovich and Nate Cox, and freshman Nicholas Pomerleau — who had a breakout series against the Orange with a goal and three assists — flank the Flames' strong fortress around graduate goalie Hunter Virostek (10-4-1, 2.68 goals-against average, 92.1 save percentage, 1 shutout).

Stony Brook Scouting Report: The Seawolves snapped a five-game losing skid to end 2023 by defeating Delaware, 3-2, in a shootout on Jan. 13. They were then edged by host Drexel, 5-4 in overtime, on Saturday after having Friday's series opener against the Dragons at The Rinx snowed out.

In contrast to Liberty, Stony Brook only has two players with 15 points or more, Justin Nakagawa (5G, 11A) and Matt Minerva (10G, 5A).

In net, Scott Barnikow (3-3-2, 3.50 GAA, 91.3 SP) has platooned with Russian-born backup Matvei Kazakov (2-6-1, 3.74 GAA, 90.7 SP).

Coaches: Kirk Handy is in his 24th season at the helm of the Flames, having guided them to seven consecutive ACHA DI National Championship appearances and posted a career record of 530-217-33. Chris Garafolo is in his 27th year as general manager of Stony Brook and 14th season as their head coach and sports a record of 270-115-29 at the helm.

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

Flames head to New York for third straight series against ESCHL foe, struggling Seawolves

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Players Mentioned

Kevin Bite

Reid Bogenholm

Jason Foltz

Jacob Kalandyk

Colten Kovich

Nicholas Pomerleau

Jackson Vercellono

Hunter Virostek