No. 7 Flames set to face off against No. 10 Mary in ACHA DI National Championships opener

Saturday, March 9

St. Louis, MO

5:45 PM

Liberty University Club Sports

University of Mary

Senior forward Jason Foltz and the rest of the Flames are focused on their season-long goals as they head into the ACHA Division I National Championships in St. Louis. (Photo by Jacob Summersgill)

No. 7 Flames set to face off against No. 10 Mary in ACHA DI National Championships opener

3/9/2024 9:21:00 AM | Men's D1 Hockey

Liberty's Division I men's team has never met the Marauders, though its DII squad has had several encounters over the past few seasons.

Liberty University's No. 7-ranked ACHA Division I men's hockey team found out on Friday that it will face No. 10 Mary (N.D.) University — a 3-1 winner over No. 23 West Chester — in Saturday's first game of the National Championships at the Centene Community Ice Center near St. Louis.

The Marauders (26-13-1), which compete in the Midwest College Hockey (MCH) conference, are in their first season as a DI program. They won two ACHA DII national titles over the past three years, as one of the DII Flames' major nemeses, eliminating them in the semifinals of the 2021 tournament on their home ice in Mandan, N.D.

With a win, Liberty (20-9-1) would advance to play No. 2 Adrian (Mich.) College (32-5), the 2021 ACHA DI national champion that eliminated No. 15 Great Lakes Collegiate Hockey League (GLCHL) rival Calvin University on Friday, 4-1. View the complete DI men's hockey bracket with results and schedule information on the ACHA's National Championships website.

"This will be the best year that I've ever seen in all of the years that we've been to nationals," Flames Head Coach Kirk Handy said. "This year, there's a lot of teams who have a really good shot at winning the national title. Years ago, there were only a handful of teams, and in the last couple years there have been a few more."

Handy and the Flames, who have reached the semifinals in two of the past three national championships, know not to overlook Mary, even with a potential rematch with the Bulldogs — a team Liberty split two series with this season at home and away — in the quarterfinals.

"Obviously, our whole philosophy is one game at a time," Handy said. "Guys are going to be motivated because there is going to be a big sense of urgency come national tournament time.
We're going to be ready to go and make sure we have our game in order. It's all about us and the way we execute. We just need to make sure we have all of our ducks in a row, all of our systems in order and make sure that we have the compete that we need."

Scouting Preview for Game 31: No. 10 Mary University (26-13-1) vs. No. 7 Liberty (20-9-1), Saturday at 5:45 p.m. EST at the Centene Community Ice Center in Maryville, Mo. All games in the ACHA National Championships will be streamed live on FloHockey.TV.

All-time series: First meeting.

Liberty Scouting Report: Liberty will be vying for its fourth trip to the Final Four, after making it to the championship game against Oakland (Mich.) in 2007 and showdowns with top-ranked, defending national champion Minot State in 2021 and 2023.

The Flames feature a veteran lineup that includes eight graduating forwards, with five of them in their top 10 in scoring — graduates Matt Bartel (13 goals, 10 assists) and Jackson Vercellono (7G, 16A) and seniors Jason Foltz (10G, 11A), DJ Schwenke (8G, 9A), and Brett Gammer (7G, 10A). The offense is sparked by junior forward Jacob Kalandyk (19G, including 5 game winners, 22A) with contribution from freshman Ryan Finch (9G, 11A) and defensemen Kevin Bite (5G, 16A), a junior from Latvia, and sophomore Nick Pomerleau (4G, 12A).

In net, Liberty is anchored by graduate goalie Hunter Virostek (16-7-1, 2.81 goals-against average, 92.0 save percentage, 1 shutout.) He has sophomore Nicholas Bernstein (3-3, 2.93 GAA, 87.0 SP) and freshman Jackson Glassford (1-0, 4.62 GAA, 88.2 SP) available in reserve.

Mary Scouting Report: The Marauders got two goals. including an empty-netter, and an assist from junior MCH First Team forward Isaiah Thomas in their 3-1 national tournament-opening win over West Chester, their first at the Division I level after going 12-1 in DII championship play over the past three years.

That kept Thomas atop the team scoring leaders (8G, 34A), followed by fellow forwards Tanner Eskro (15G, 23A) and Seth Kushing (21G, 7GWG, 3 shorthanded goals, 14A) and MCH First Team defenseman Johnny Witzke (9G, 3GWG, 19A), who received the league's sportsmanship award. Luke Schleusner (10G, 3GWG, 8A) earned a spot on the MCH All-Rookie Team.

Between the pipes, the Marauders primarily platoon Conan Hayton (11-4, 2.46 GAA, 91.8 SP, 1 SO) and Kyle Hayden (9-9-1, 2.36 GAA, 93.0 SP, 2 SO) with Cameron Milewski (3-0, 0.30, 98.6 SP, 2 SO) boasting the best stats in limited minutes.

Coaches: Handy is in his 24th season as head coach for the Flames, having guided them to eight consecutive ACHA DI National Championship tournaments and 16 in 18 seasons and recorded a career record of 539-220-33. He was named ACHA DI National Coach of the Year in 2019-20. Daniel Huntley has been at the helm of the Marauders since their inaugural season in 2017-18, guiding them to a 192-28-19 mark in five seasons at the ACHA DII level — earning ACHA DII Coach of the Year honors in 2019-20 and 2020-21 — and a 26-13-1 record in their first season as DI competitors.