DII Flames upended in OT by St. Thomas; narrowly miss Final Four despite going 2-0-1

Friday, March 14

Centene Community Ice Center l St. Louis, MO

12:15 PM EST

Liberty University Club Sports

University of St. Thomas

Senior forward and head captain Josh Harrell battles a St. Thomas player for possession of the puck in Friday's 5-4 overtime loss. (Photos courtesy of Anna Wheat/Liberty Champion)

DII Flames upended in OT by St. Thomas; narrowly miss Final Four despite going 2-0-1

3/17/2025 8:51:00 AM | Men's D2 Hockey

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Liberty (21-11-3) bounced back from the loss to the top-seeded Tommies to defeat Texas by a 3-0 count and Army for the second national tournament in a row, 3-1.

Gallery: (3-17-2025) DII men's hockey Nationals pool play

Liberty University's ACHA Division II men's hockey team suffered a similar fate in ACHA National Championships pool play over the weekend at the Centene Community Ice Center as it has the past three seasons, finishing 2-0-1 to narrowly miss getting out of its four-team pool and reaching the Final Four, Friday through Sunday.

The Flames (21-10-4) dropped Friday's 5-4 opening setback to St. Thomas (23-6-2), which outshot the Flames 39-36 in the back-and-forth contest. Liberty answered Tommies' scores with goals by senior forward Jared Matley off assists from graduate defenseman Dylan Kent and junior forward Mark Padgett with 2:44 left in the first, Padgett off a feed from Kent with 1 second remaining in the second, and junior forward Antonio Vidal set up by senior forward Luke Tucker and Harrell, tying the game for a third time on the power play.

Just 2:15 later, Harrell netted another in 5-on-4 action off an assist from Tucker to lift Liberty to its only lead at 4-3 before allowing St. Thomas to score the equalizer with a man advantage of its own with 6:03 remaining in regulation.

Liberty applied plenty of pressure in the 10-minute, sudden-death overtime period, but St. Thomas started a counterattack down the center of the ice at the 1:13 mark as Jed England sent a fast-break feed to Brady Knorr who tucked a backhand game winner through the five hole past senior goalie Lane Skon. Knorr proceeded to go into a head-first slide as he skated back along the left boards, prompting his Tommies teammates to follow suit into a seal-like pileup.

Liberty (21-11-5), which had lost to St. Thomas, 5-3, at a showcase in Wisconsin in October after dominating defending national champion Indiana, 8-3, recovered to win its last two games in pool play to finish 2-1 at nationals for the third season in a row.

The Flames shut out Texas (19-9-4) by a 3-0 final on Saturday, played at the McKendree MetroRecPlex in O'Fallon, Ill., due to storms in the St. Louis area. Sophomore goalie Christian Sehlke posted the shutout and Liberty got goals from senior forward and head captain Josh Harrell in the second period, assisted by junior defenseman Connor Diem and Matley, and the game-winning and insurance goals from Padgett in the third, the first off assists from freshman forward Anthony Emme and Matley and second shorthanded, set up by junior forward Josh Martin. Liberty outshot Texas, 36-17 for the contest.

Logan Johnson Connor Diem Liberty Texas — Senior defenseman Logan Johnson confronts a Texas player with the puck in front of Flames teammate Connor Diem on Saturday.

Then on Sunday night, the Flames overcame a 1-0 deficit against Army (19-5-3) to net the tying goal in the second period and game-winning and insurance goals in the third period of a 3-1 season-ending victory.

In a game plagued by 13 penalties and that featured 10 power plays, both penalty kill units proved up to the challenge, not allowing a single goal on special teams.

Emme netted the equalizer assisted by Martin with 6:43 left in the second period before Cory Owens scored the game winner off an assist from fellow senior forward Eric Abbate with 8:23 remaining in regulation.

Then, with the Black Knights on their fifth power play of the night, seconds after pulling their goalie for the 6-on-4 advantage, senior defenseman Logan Johnson recovered the puck off a save and assist from Skon and cleared it off the left board glass before it took a fortuitous bounce and rolled on its edge into the open net for a shorthanded score that clinched the win with1:02 left.

Liberty outshot Army 35-25 and Skon made 24 saves in the victory to cap his four-year career with a 56-22-7 mark.

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Video by Noah Richter/Club Sports Video & Media