DI women tame Lions in second game of WMCH Showcase; challenge Saints on Saturday near St. Louis

Lady Flames forward Haley battles follows through on a shot against Lindenwood in an October 2021 showdown at the LaHaye Ice Center.

DI women tame Lions in second game of WMCH Showcase; challenge Saints on Saturday near St. Louis

1/27/2024 11:33:00 AM | Women's D1 Hockey

Liberty dominated Lindenwood on its home ice, the same site as the ACHA National Championships in seven weeks.

Late on Friday night, Liberty University's top-ranked, five-time-defending ACHA Division I national champion women's hockey team made itself at home inside the Centene Community Ice Center in Maryland Heights, Mo., site of the March 13-17 National Championships, in a 10-1 triumph over No. 11 Lindenwood University.

For the second night in a row, the Lady Flames (15-3-1) converted three power-play goals and this time added a shorthanded score in the first period as they scored three goals in the first and second and added four more in the third.

Liberty outshot Lindenwood (5-11-3) by a 60-25 margin and allowed only one goal at the 18:37 mark of the second period. The Lady Flames, meanwhile, got goals from nine different players, including two from freshman forward Ellie Sarauer.

"I liked the jump we had early, and the girls were buzzing," Head Coach Chris Lowes said. "It was good to see special teams continue to be effective, and production from the power play."
Liberty head captain Rianna Spanier started the scoring with 17:02 to play in the first period when she finished an assist from junior forward Haley Battles. Fellow graduate forward Yannick Truter followed that goal up 14 seconds later off a pass from senior forward Carly Glover after the ensuing faceoff before Brielle Fussy scored shorthanded off an assist from fellow junior forward Zosia Adamek to pad the advantage to 3-0 at the 6:13 mark.

The Lady Flames started the second period on a power play and Battles quickly capitalized off a feed from freshman defenseman Sophia Adamek with 19:36 left. Graduate defenseman Aislyn Stretch also netted a goal with a man advantage off an assist from Zosia Adamek with 10:17 to play in the period before Sarauer stretched Liberty's lead to 6-0 off an assist from Stretch with 3:08 left.

Finally, in the third, Sarauer converted her second score, set up by Glover with 8:13 remaining in regulation, for a 7-0 lead before junior defenseman Sammy Peebles put away passes from Sophia Adamek and sophomore forward Brookelyn Beauchamp with 7:45 to go to make it 8-0. Zosia Adamek then scored off an assist from Battles at the 5:21 mark before Glover capped the scoring with the Lady Flames back on the power play, finishing an assist from Sarauer with 3:09 to play.

Between the pipes, sophomore goalie Alex Keith made 20 saves and only allowed one score (95.2 save percentage) before sophomore DII call-up Abby Hodgden relieved her and made four saves in the final 11 minutes without giving up a goal.

"I thought Alex had another strong game in goal and I was happy to see Abby go in and shut things down in the end," Lowes said.

Liberty will travel to the Maryville University Hockey Center in Chesterfield, Mo., for Saturday's final game of the WMCH Showcase against the No. 5-ranked host Saints starting at 6:15 p.m. EST. That game, and Sunday's inaugural WMCH All-Star game set for 1 p.m., will be streamed live on Maryville's YouTube channel.

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer