Saturday, October 11
Adrian, MI
1:05 PM
Liberty University Club Sports
at
Adrian College
Sophomore forward Kal Essenmacher netted a goal nine seconds after Adrian's first score to pad Liberty's lead to 4-1 in Saturday's rematch at Arrington Ice Arena. (File photo by Simon Barbre)
No. 4 Flames flip script, split series with No. 2 Bulldogs with 6-2 road win
10/11/2025 5:02:00 PM | Men's D1 Hockey
Liberty killed off all four of its penalties and converted two power-play goals to turn the tables on Adrian on its home ice.
Approximately 18 hours after dropping its first game of the season at No. 2-ranked Adrian College, 7-3, Liberty University's No. 4-ranked ACHA Division I men's hockey team played its most complete game of the season so far to deal the Bulldogs their first loss, winning 6-2 Saturday afternoon at the Arrington Ice Arena in Adrian, Mich.
"It was a huge turnaround for us," Flames Head Coach Kirk Handy said. "I was proud of our guys. We had a game plan, they stuck to the game plan, and executed it, and it was really awesome to see them pull together and make something happen."
Liberty (9-1) scored twice in every period and outshot Adrian (8-1) by a 40-31 margin for the game. That included a dominating 25-5 difference in the second stanza, when the Bulldogs were whistled for the only four penalties of the period.
The Flames picked up the last three penalties of the first period and the first three of the third, killing off a total of 12 minutes of man-down situations, including seven straight early in the third. For the game, Liberty converted on 2 of its 6 power plays and went 4-for-4 on penalty kills as senior goalie Nick Bernstein made 29 saves to improve to 4-0.
Liberty was playing without freshman defenseman Michael Fischer and sophomore defenseman Joe Feamster, sidelined by injuries in Friday night's setback.
"(Assistant Coach) Ben (Hughes) really did a fabulous job working with the penalty kill unit," Handy said. "He did a great job of getting a lot of guys in on the PK. When you have to kill seven minutes, you need to rotate multiple guys in, and they were able to not only kill the penalties but to kill them well. The guys were buying in, running the proper systems. It was great to see."
Flames freshman forward Seth Wall and junior forward Mason Smith were also out due to injuries and sophomore forward Brad Barker was issued a game misconduct for a hit to the head near the red line that resulted in the five-minute major penalty early in the third period.
"We were shorthanded tonight, and we only played with five defensemen because of injuries," Handy said. "We had to bear down and play well. Brad (Barker) got kicked out, and the guys really bucked down. Bernstein played really well in net, and our power play was very good."
Flames senior forward Michael DeBrito started the scoring at the 16:57 mark seconds after a center-ice faceoff by skating onto outlet passes from senior defenseman Connor Diem and sophomore forward Mac Ratzlaff near the red line. He skated across the blue line before using an Adrian defenseman as a shield and firing a shot from near the top of the right circle that sneaked past Bulldogs goalie Payton Trzaska into the top-left corner of the cage.
Just 3:27 later, junior forward Luke Munroe scored the first of his two power-play goals by deftly deflecting junior defenseman Nick Pomerleau's shot from the high slot past Trzaska from the left crease into the back of the net for a 2-0 Liberty lead He did it again from the right crease at the 13:30 mark of the second period after Pomerleau launched another high-slot shot off a secondary assist from sophomore forward Liam Cox-Smith.
"They're usually pretty good on the PK, but we were able to get them on the power play," Handy said. "(Assistant Coaches) Dan (Berthiaume) and Jonathan Chung are doing a great job with the power play."
Liberty looked to pad its 3-0 lead late in the second period but couldn't capitalize on a power play and Adrian took advantage. Luke Widener, who had a hat trick in the Bulldogs' 7-3 triumph on Friday night, trimmed the deficit to 3-1 on a breakaway seconds after the penalty kill, sweeping wide right and beating Flames goalie Nick Bernstein with a sharp-angled shot over his glove that glanced off the crossbar and in to with 3:01 to play in the period.
However, the Flames proved to be resilient and responded just nine seconds after the ensuing faceoff when Kal Essenmacher put away passes from Barker out of the right corner and freshman forward Seth Huygen in front to extend the lead to 4-1 with his one-timed shot from the left crease.
"That was one of the turning points of the game, to score on the very next shift at 2:52, right at the end of the period," Handy said. "It was awesome."
With the Bulldogs on a power play midway through the third period, Bernstein made a series of saves and benefited from the post to block a diving jab by Keegan Decaluwe. Soon thereafter, Bernstein lost his stick but still managed to kill off the penalty before Adrian finally scored at even strength on a back-door tap-in by Justin Jamer off Cash Regan's cross-crease feed from deep in the left-circle, cutting the deficit to 4-2 with 7:43 remaining in regulation.
The Bulldogs pulled Trzaska with 3:30 to play to give them a 6-on-5 advantage, but the move backfired as sophomore forward Hayden DeMars sprung free with a loose puck for an empty-net breakaway finish at the 2:24 mark. Then, with Trzaska back between the pipes, the Flames struck again for the final score when Ratzlaff received a backhanded pass from DeBrito skating along the right backboards for a point-blank finish with 1:08 to go, matching the four-goal margin of defeat from Friday night.
"It was a great team effort, probably the best team win we've had so far," Handy said. "I was super proud of our guys for digging in and for their response. Adrian's going to be right there at the end of the year, so it was big for us to get this done today, especially after yesterday."
The Flames have next weekend to recover from injuries before returning to action against Stony Brook Oct. 24-25 the LaHaye Ice Center, with the debut of NASCAR Night for Saturday's 7 p.m. rematch.
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer
"It was a huge turnaround for us," Flames Head Coach Kirk Handy said. "I was proud of our guys. We had a game plan, they stuck to the game plan, and executed it, and it was really awesome to see them pull together and make something happen."
Liberty (9-1) scored twice in every period and outshot Adrian (8-1) by a 40-31 margin for the game. That included a dominating 25-5 difference in the second stanza, when the Bulldogs were whistled for the only four penalties of the period.
The Flames picked up the last three penalties of the first period and the first three of the third, killing off a total of 12 minutes of man-down situations, including seven straight early in the third. For the game, Liberty converted on 2 of its 6 power plays and went 4-for-4 on penalty kills as senior goalie Nick Bernstein made 29 saves to improve to 4-0.
Liberty was playing without freshman defenseman Michael Fischer and sophomore defenseman Joe Feamster, sidelined by injuries in Friday night's setback.
"(Assistant Coach) Ben (Hughes) really did a fabulous job working with the penalty kill unit," Handy said. "He did a great job of getting a lot of guys in on the PK. When you have to kill seven minutes, you need to rotate multiple guys in, and they were able to not only kill the penalties but to kill them well. The guys were buying in, running the proper systems. It was great to see."
Flames freshman forward Seth Wall and junior forward Mason Smith were also out due to injuries and sophomore forward Brad Barker was issued a game misconduct for a hit to the head near the red line that resulted in the five-minute major penalty early in the third period.
"We were shorthanded tonight, and we only played with five defensemen because of injuries," Handy said. "We had to bear down and play well. Brad (Barker) got kicked out, and the guys really bucked down. Bernstein played really well in net, and our power play was very good."
Flames senior forward Michael DeBrito started the scoring at the 16:57 mark seconds after a center-ice faceoff by skating onto outlet passes from senior defenseman Connor Diem and sophomore forward Mac Ratzlaff near the red line. He skated across the blue line before using an Adrian defenseman as a shield and firing a shot from near the top of the right circle that sneaked past Bulldogs goalie Payton Trzaska into the top-left corner of the cage.
Just 3:27 later, junior forward Luke Munroe scored the first of his two power-play goals by deftly deflecting junior defenseman Nick Pomerleau's shot from the high slot past Trzaska from the left crease into the back of the net for a 2-0 Liberty lead He did it again from the right crease at the 13:30 mark of the second period after Pomerleau launched another high-slot shot off a secondary assist from sophomore forward Liam Cox-Smith.
"They're usually pretty good on the PK, but we were able to get them on the power play," Handy said. "(Assistant Coaches) Dan (Berthiaume) and Jonathan Chung are doing a great job with the power play."
Liberty looked to pad its 3-0 lead late in the second period but couldn't capitalize on a power play and Adrian took advantage. Luke Widener, who had a hat trick in the Bulldogs' 7-3 triumph on Friday night, trimmed the deficit to 3-1 on a breakaway seconds after the penalty kill, sweeping wide right and beating Flames goalie Nick Bernstein with a sharp-angled shot over his glove that glanced off the crossbar and in to with 3:01 to play in the period.
However, the Flames proved to be resilient and responded just nine seconds after the ensuing faceoff when Kal Essenmacher put away passes from Barker out of the right corner and freshman forward Seth Huygen in front to extend the lead to 4-1 with his one-timed shot from the left crease.
"That was one of the turning points of the game, to score on the very next shift at 2:52, right at the end of the period," Handy said. "It was awesome."
With the Bulldogs on a power play midway through the third period, Bernstein made a series of saves and benefited from the post to block a diving jab by Keegan Decaluwe. Soon thereafter, Bernstein lost his stick but still managed to kill off the penalty before Adrian finally scored at even strength on a back-door tap-in by Justin Jamer off Cash Regan's cross-crease feed from deep in the left-circle, cutting the deficit to 4-2 with 7:43 remaining in regulation.
The Bulldogs pulled Trzaska with 3:30 to play to give them a 6-on-5 advantage, but the move backfired as sophomore forward Hayden DeMars sprung free with a loose puck for an empty-net breakaway finish at the 2:24 mark. Then, with Trzaska back between the pipes, the Flames struck again for the final score when Ratzlaff received a backhanded pass from DeBrito skating along the right backboards for a point-blank finish with 1:08 to go, matching the four-goal margin of defeat from Friday night.
"It was a great team effort, probably the best team win we've had so far," Handy said. "I was super proud of our guys for digging in and for their response. Adrian's going to be right there at the end of the year, so it was big for us to get this done today, especially after yesterday."
The Flames have next weekend to recover from injuries before returning to action against Stony Brook Oct. 24-25 the LaHaye Ice Center, with the debut of NASCAR Night for Saturday's 7 p.m. rematch.
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer
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