DII men tripped up by Tampa, narrowly miss qualifying for nationals

Saturday, February 21

Cincinnati, OH

11:10 AM

Liberty University Club Sports

University of South Carolina

Flames sophomore forward Ben Kovac scored Liberty's first and final goals in Friday's 4-3 overtime victory. (Photo by Grace Greer)

DII men tripped up by Tampa, narrowly miss qualifying for nationals

2/24/2026 11:04:00 AM | Men's D2 Hockey

No. 8 Liberty rallied from a 3-0 deficit to advance past No. 9 South Carolina in the first round before falling short against No. 2 Spartans, 2-1.

From miracle comeback to late-game heartbreak, Liberty University's ACHA Division II men's hockey team experienced a rollercoaster of emotions and eventual disappointment in this past weekend's Southeast Region Championships in Cincinnati.

The Flames, seeded eighth out of 16 teams in the tournament based on their latest ranking, defeated No. 9 South Carolina 4-3 in overtime in Friday's first-round game at Queen City Sportsplex before giving up two power-play goals in the third period of Saturday's 2-1 season-ending setback against the University of Tampa at Heritage Bank Center.

Liberty's first-ever showdown with South Carolina turned out to be a barnburner. The Gamecocks (12-5-1) opened a 3-0 lead, with Colin Reid scoring unassisted on their first power-play opportunity with 2:58 remaining in the first period before Nico Tashjian finished feeds from Matthew Winkleblech and Garrett Albers with 1:19 in the second, and Matthew Baxter scored unassisted just 18 seconds into the third.

But the Flames, who outshot USC, 40-35, fought fire with fire and mounted an amazing rally, netting four unanswered goals in 15 minutes to survive and advance. After being outshot 25-18 through the first two periods, Liberty held a commanding 21-10 shot advantage on the Gamecocks in the third period.

Ben Kovac started and ended the Flames' comeback off assists from alternate captain and fellow sophomore forward Anthony Emme at the 14:16 mark of the third period and senior forward and alternate captain Josh Martin with 3:35 to go in the five-minute sudden-death overtime period.

Freshman forward Drake Perham drew Liberty back within 3-2 by scoring off assists from sophomore forward Cooper Fredericks and freshman defenseman and head captain Theo Priem with 5:23 remaining in regulation. Then, after the Flames pulled goalie CJ Sehlke with 2:30 to play for the man advantage, freshman forward Boaz Sochaczevski put away passes from Kovac and Emme for the equalizer at the 1:15 mark.

Saturday's second-round game against Tampa, the reigning AAU Division I national champions, was a rematch of Liberty's 5-0 shellacking. That capped an 0-3 road trip to Florida, after dropping two games at No. 1-ranked Florida Gulf Coast University, leaving the Flames at 1-6 to start their first season under Head Coach Christian Garland.
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After that slow start, Liberty (16-13-1) won 15 of its last 23 contests and showed how much it had improved in its rematch with Tampa.

In the end, the Flames couldn't quite pull off the win that would have sent them to St. Louis for the March 12-17 ACHA DII National Championships. Instead, Tampa is one of three Florida teams (along with FGCU and Florida Atlantic) representing the Southeast Region at nationals. No. 7-seeded Penn State, which upset No. 3 Ohio, is the fourth.

Against the Spartans, special teams came back to bite Liberty. After Priem started the scoring with an unassisted power-play goal with exactly 2:00 remaining in the first period, the Flames committed the game's final five penalties. They gave up the game winner on a power-play goal by Alexander Moeller with 8:12 remaining in regulation after Billy McCann netted the equalizer with 12:08 to play.
Liberty came out on attack and outshot Tampa, 20-5, in the first period before being outshot 16-9 in a scoreless second period, 13-4 in the third, and 34-33 for the game.

Junior Andrew Young got the start in goal and made 32 saves before being pulled for the final minute, when the Flames were unable to manufacture the tying goal that would have forced overtime for the second game in a row.

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer