Flames soar over Eagles, 6-4, with four unanswered goals in third period

Friday, September 18

7:00 PM

Liberty University Club Sports

Florida Gulf Coast University

Junior forward Zach Nicolas, an NCAA Division I transfer, scored his first goal for the Flames, and the first of the game against Florida Gulf Coast, Friday at the LaHaye Ice Center. (Photos by Dawn Baker)

Flames soar over Eagles, 6-4, with four unanswered goals in third period

9/18/2026 11:40:00 PM | Men's D1 Hockey

Photo Gallery Photo Gallery 2

Liberty (2-0) got clutch goals from Kal Essenmacher, Mason Smith, and a goal and three assists from Tanner Hunt to complete the comeback.

Gallery: (9-18-2026) FGCU at Liberty DI men's hockey for 918

Fueled by a College for a Weekend (CFAW) and Family Weekend crowd at the LaHaye Ice Center, Liberty University's No. 7-ranked ACHA Division I men's hockey team evened its all-time series against Florida Gulf Coast University at 1-1 with a 6-4 victory over the Eagles in their season opener on Friday night.

After allowing the Eagles to score three consecutive goals in the second period despite being outshot, 33-9, Liberty (2-0) closed out the contest with four unanswered goals in the third to ice the dramatic come-from-behind win over the reigning ACHA Division II national champions.

"It was quite a game," Flames Head Coach Kirk Handy said. "We outshot them 72-31, and their goalie played fantastic for them. They're a great hockey team. That's why I love playing those guys. They were opportunistic and they jumped on their chances. It took a lot of resilience, and it took our team to dig in super deep in the second game of the year. It was huge."

"It was good for us to battle adversity early on in the year," added Liberty senior defenseman Mason Smith, a converted forward who assisted the go-ahead goal in the first period before netting the game-winner in the third. "It's good to have that test and to battle through it and hopefully learn from it and grow as a team."

Liberty, which suffered a 4-3 setback to FGCU early in the 2024-25 season, overcame an early 1-0 deficit when junior forward Zach Nicholas netted his first goal since transferring from NCAA Division I Stonehill (Mass.) College, taking an assist from senior forward and alternate captain Luke Munroe and blasting a slapshot from the high slot past FGCU goalie Mason DeCaire to level the score at 1-1 at the 11:10 mark of the first period.

Then, with Liberty on the power play, Smith won the puck along the left boards and skated toward the cage before sending a pass across to senior forward Brad Barker cutting into the right crease where he roofed a chip shot into an open net for a 2-1 advantage 6:31 before the first intermission.

Seconds into a power play at the start of the second period, the Eagles capitalized with the equalizer when Anthony Zebley crashed the cage and slammed home assists from Trey Wandell and Nathan Tobey at the 18:47 mark.

Cole Bauman, who netted the game-winning goal in sudden-death overtime against Oklahoma in the ACHA DII national tournament final last March near St. Louis, lifted the Eagles back on top, 3-2, by capitalizing on a breakaway, beating Kuchaslo with a backhand into the top-left corner of cage at the 14:56 mark.

Then, with 7:14 to play in the period, Shayne Tomlinson doubled FGCU's advantage to 4-2 by putting away a point-blank finish in front of the cage off assists from Aidan Dufort and Tobey.

Both teams lost two players to 10-minute misconduct penalties — Flames freshman forward Stone Rolston and senior defenseman Michael Adamkek and FGCU forward Chad Noetzel and defenseman Tobey after an on-ice altercation late in the second period.

Barker served the penalty for Adamek, leaving the Eagles on a power play, but the Flames trimmed the deficit to 4-3 on a shorthanded, unassisted score by senior forward Kal Essenmacher, who ripped his shot into the upper netting with 18:41 remaining in regulation.

"That was a big goal by Kal, shorthanded," Handy said. "It was a timely goal."

Sophomore forward Tanner Hunt netted the equalizer with 14:42 to play off rebounds of sophomore defenseman Michael Fischer's shot from the point and junior forward Liam Cox-Smith's initial putback.

"We did a better job in the third period of being more desperate, especially 10 feet around our net and 10 feet around their net," Handy said. "That paid off."

With the teams at even strength, the Flames struck again when Smith received feeds from Hunt and sophomore defenseman Shane Burns along the left boards and sniped a bar-down shot that lifted Liberty to a 5-4 lead with 10:02 to go.

The Flames maintained the pressure on the Eagles' cage with Essenmacher ripping a wrist shot from the left circle that DeCaire gloved high before graduate forward and head captain Sam Feamster's tip of graduate defenseman and alternate captain Nick Pomerleau's shot from the point was saved.

A five-minute major assessed to Feamster with 5:07 to go put FGCU on a 5-on-4 power play for nearly the remainder of regulation.

"Personally, I think it was a brutal call, but it was good to see either way our team step up when we needed to," Smith said. "It was a stressful five minutes, but it was a good win. Our PK did a really good job keeping them to the outside, and Joe (Kuchaslo) stood on his head. It was a good team effort. We didn't have a doubt in the room going into the third period. We outshot them 33-9 (in the second) and we knew that the chances were going to come. We just had to bury on them. We were beating their zone. It was good to battle through it, and it was a good test."

Kuchaslo blocked a one-on-one shot by Zebley in the left crease after the puck got past the Flames defense and another by Noetzel in the right crease before clearing it out.

"I was proud of the way our guys played," Handy said. "(Some of the calls) could have gone either way, but I thought the guys did a great job of maintaining their composure."

"Joe (Kuchaslo) played well for us in net and made some saves he had to make," he added. "That was a tough kill and our PK played great tonight."

The Eagles pulled DeCaire for a 6-on-4 advantage with 1:30 left, but the move backfired when senior forward and alternate captain Mac Ratzlaff, who had taken punishment from the Eagles all night, exacted a measure of revenge by picking off a pass and skating up the right wing across the red line before cutting back and firing a shot from the high slot under the stick of a sliding Eagles player into the back of the empty net for the insurance score.

Liberty will travel for the first time this season next Friday when it plays the first game of a home-and-home series at North Carolina State at 7:30 p.m. before returning to the LIC to meet the Ice Pack in Saturday's 7 p.m. rematch.

This weekend, FGCU will face off with Liberty's DII squad on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 12:30 p.m.

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Video edited by Patrick Strawn/Club Sports Director of Video & Media