LU HOCKEY:
LIBERTY 7, LAFAYETTE 1
by Scott LaPeer
At approximately 9:30 pm on Saturday night, the first puck of the Liberty men’s hockey season was dropped at the Roanoke Ice Station, signaling the commencement of a new season on the ice and the first step in a reenergized run at a national title.
After a strong outing last year in which the Flames skated to a 25-5-1 overall record that included a UHL conference championship, a number-one seed at the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) national tournament, and a final ranking of 11th in the nation, as the team saw the departure of ten seniors, Liberty begins the 2005-2006 hockey season with a very new team and a new identity. However, after a 7-1 victory on Saturday night against Lafayette College of Bethlehem, Pa, the Flames showed little sign of a team struggling to find an identity.
A combination of first-game nerves and off-season rust contributed to a slow start for the Flames who were skating in the opener without three of their premier players. Senior captain and forward Jon Ziegler, senior defenseman Thomas Cooney, and sophomore forward Kevin Dykstra, all were serving a mandatory one-game suspension carried over from the final game of last season in which they were disqualified. Freshman forward Alexandre Gelinas, one of 12 new, freshman players on this year’s roster, was the only player able to score in the first period, as he took a pass from sophomore forward Jay Pagett and found the back of the net, giving Liberty a 1-0 lead at the first intermission.
The Flames appeared to be more comfortable on their edges with the start of the second period,as a couple of other freshmen, Pete Masterton and Josh Ahier, lit the scoreboard giving LU a 3-0 lead. Lafayette responded to close out the period with a goal of their own – the only time the Leopards would crack sophomore goaltender, Mike Binnie, all night. From there on out, the Flames played to the rowdy, home crowd with another solid twenty-plus minutes of shutout hockey.
In the third stanza it was all Liberty, as the Flames completed what was a visibly evident period-by-period transformation, scoring four goals backed by the strong play of Binnie. Tristin Chambers, the only non-freshman to score a goal on the night, trickled a backhand shot past the scrambling Lafayette goaltender to open the flood gates for the Flames victory. Junior forward, Jordan Wilson, the team’s leading returning goal scorer from last season, got into a playmaking mood shortly after, setting up consecutive goals for freshmen Kevin Hendrix and Fred Boothman. Finally, as if a 6-1 score wasn’t convincing enough, Masterton notched his second goal of the night to stamp out the Leopards and close the game at 7-1.
Binnie stopped 16 shots from the opposition in net and was honored as the first Player of the Game of the new season. On the night,Liberty out-shot Lafayette 28-to-17, a statistic that head coach Kirk Handy wouldn’t mind seeing his squad develop into a trend as the season progresses. Handy obviously believes the talent is there to do just that as he commented on his offense saying, “Even with a few of our regular guys out and with 12 freshmen in the lineup, we played really well and showed a lot of offensive ability. We feel we have enough offensive power to put lots of goals on the scoreboard every game this year.”
Liberty will next take the ice on October 8th at the CharlottesvilleIcePark when they face off against the University of Virginia.
MEN'S HOCKEY SLAMS VIRGINIA, 10-3
by Scott LaPeer
In a rare afternoon game Saturday, in Charlottesville, LibertyUniversity sent a hard, yet clear message to their University of Virginia opposition. The message: No, you are not on our level. Not on the ice.
Behind an offensive surge that spanned nearly the entire first two periods of play, the Flames, at times, made scoring appear almost effortless in a 10-3 drubbing of the Cavaliers. The good news for Liberty hockey fans and the bad news for future opponents is that this, very possibly, is just the beginning of men's hockey posting victories that are closer in resemblance to low-scoring football games than hockey scores. A poor offensive showing in football that results in a 10-3 game often translates into a duller, slow-paced contest. However, on the ice, 10-3 translates beautifully into plenty of high-scoring excitement and satisfied spectators.
Freshmen Kevin Hendrix, Adam Kemp, and Alexandre Gelinas set the tone for a balanced offensive attack that saw seven different Flames’ players register a goal in the victory. Sophomore goaltender Dalton Stoltz was solid in net, stopping 21 shots while picking up the win in his season debut. Hendrix and Kemp alone, outscored Virginia scoring five goals (three and two respectively), and Gelinas played the role of "set-up man" assisting on three goals. Sophomore forward Kevin Dykstra and seniors Jon Fitter and Jon Ziegler each tallied a goal and an assist for the Flames.
The scoring began at 15:47 of the first period when Virginia’s Danny Miller beat Stoltz with a one-timer from the front of the net. Almost immediately after, it seemed as though Liberty had spotted the Cavs the first goal as a way to show their appreciation for playing host to the afternoon event. Devastation came next – in the form of ten straight goals rattled off by the Flames. By the 8:19 mark of the second period, when Ziegler managed to finish a beautiful tic-tac-toe, power-play goal set up by Dykstra and sophomore defenseman Aaron Mackenzie, all the while being cross checked in the back and tumbling forward, head-first into the goal post, the rout was concluded and the figurative life had officially been sucked out of the Cavaliers.
“I caught the pass coming across the crease just in time and reached out to put the puck on net. Just as that happened, one of them got a stick in my back and I kind of went neck-first into the post. I was alright though and it was nice to see it go in,” Ziegler said.
Skating out to a 10-2 score to begin the third period, both teams occupied the final 20 minutes by displaying some of the frustrations they had built up during the previous 40. For Virginia, it was clearly the frustration of a team out-matched and already completely out of contention for victory. For Liberty, it was perhaps more a frustration built out of the lack of any real challenge presented by the Cavaliers. Penalties abounded as the two teams sought to take out their respective frustrations on each other. Several, extended stoppages of play ultimately disrupted the flow of the game and any momentum either team tried to generate. Virginia tacked on a final goal in the third period, but for little worth, as the game came to a close at 10-3.
“They weren’t a great team and there were a lot of penalties, but overall we kept our cool and played hard. Obviously we finished our plays and got a few goals, and the defense played pretty well, so it was a good confidence builder,” Fitter said.
The win improves the Flames to 2-0 early in the season and has head coach Kirk Handy feeling optimistic about his young team’s performances thus far. “I’m happy because they’re almost all freshmen. You just never know how freshmen might turn out. It’s exciting that our best players are largely freshmen, but it’s still early and we have some important games ahead of us before we can really gauge where we are as a team,” Handy said.
LIBERTY DROPS PAIR TO REDHAWKS
by Scott LaPeer
The University of Miami Ohio paid a visit to Roanoke to take on Liberty in the first weekend series of the young season and, after all was played out on the ice, blew town back to Ohio with a two-game sweep of the Flames secured.
Friday night saw Miami jump out to a quick 2-0, first period lead as the RedHawks found success in the odd-man rush. Sophomore goaltender Dalton Stoltz made a big save with 6.3 seconds left in the first, stopping the puck in his pads to keep the score close before the intermission. It would prove to be a save that would keep Liberty in the game, because at just 19:07 of the next period, Miami scored again on the power play, making it a 3-0 lead.
The deficit appeared to spark the Flames, and when Miami took a penalty at 17:18, Liberty finally found their way onto the scoreboard. Freshman forward Kevin Hendrix made a nice play just inside the blue line to keep the puck in the offensive zone and dished it to junior forward Jordan Wilson, who was set up on the wing. Wilson handled the puck methodically before skating in and crossing a perfect pass to freshman forward Alexandre Gelinas who one-timed it into the back of the net, setting the home crowd off into a raucous frenzy.
The shots on goal began to pick up for Liberty thereafter as the relief of burying their first goal provided a visible swing of momentum in the Flames' favor. Roughly four minutes later the Flames struck on the power play again when Hendrix's blast from the point was redirected up and in by freshman forward Adam Kemp, who had to work hard to establish his advantageous position in front of the Miami goal. A minute and twenty seconds later Miami went back up by two when a high shot beat Stoltz over the shoulder.
Senior defenseman Thomas Cooney scored Liberty's third power play goal of the period with 2:33 left when he found an opening on the left side of the net and took a cross-ice feed, chipping it by the RedHawks goaltender as he attempted to slide into position. The beaten goaltender fell back onto the net, dislodging it from the ice just a second after the puck made it under the crossbar, but the linesman emphatically signaled "goal", making it 4-3 Miami.
The third period of action saw the two teams skate back-and-forth evenly until the RedHawks scored again on a third-chance shot as Stoltz lay on the ice after making the first two saves. With just 6:35 remaining and a 5-3 lead, Miami had successfully fended off the Flames rally.
Gelinas scored his second of the game with 1:51 to go when Liberty pulled Stoltz from the net for an extra attacker. Gelinas skated in with the puck from the side and let go of a wrist shot that beat the Miami goalie high and glove-side. The RedHawks skated out the final minute of the game and ended Friday night with a 5-4 victory.
"MiamiOhio is a very skilled, hard working, and disciplined team. They were well coached and did a good job of avoiding a lot of the chippy stuff that goes on in hockey. I thought we played better as the game went on, made some smart plays, and our power play was a nice surprise as well," Cooney said.
Saturday night's game was not quite as close as Friday's, as the Flames struggled to generate their offensive opportunities. For the second night in a row Miami out shout Liberty and, in spite of sophomore goalie Mike Binnie's commendable efforts, the RedHawks found their openings in the 4-1 defeat. Gelinas scored the lone Liberty goal on an assist from Kemp, giving him a total of three for the weekend, but it was of little consolation as the Flames lost two straight regular season games for the first time in two seasons.
Despite being only the third week of October, it was a meaningful pair of match ups with the RedHawks whom, as of this new season, moved into the American Collegiate Hockey Association's (ACHA) Southeastern conference-- the same conference the Flames compete in. With only the top four teams from each conference qualifying for the ACHA national tournament in March, each game against conference opponents carries considerable weight. Dropping back-to-back 5-4 and 4-1 contests at home has not hindered the Flames ability to pursue their goal of a national championship, but it has opened a few eyes and perhaps placed a new perspective on the long road to unfurl as the season progresses.
"Losing two games like this really humbles us as a team. It makes us realize that we're not invincible and we can't just come in to our home rink and walk all over everyone. Hopefully we'll learn a lesson from (the losses) and want to work even harder now. I think our attitude, as a team, is going to change for the better," sophomore forward Jay Pagett said.
The players, however, were not the only ones who found the tough weekend series to be a bit of an eye opener. Consecutive packed-out Ice Station crowds hit 460 East back to Lynchburg disappointed by their team's defeat for the first time since the 2003-2004 season. After last year's team finished unbeaten at home, often winning games by at least a touchdown's margin, student-fans may have been awakened to the realization that they were beginning to take their team's success for granted.
"It was tough seeing the guys lose at home and having to listen to the three or four Miami fans make their little comments. The team has been so solid the past three or four years it was almost uncomfortable to watch them go down. Nobody expects you to win every game, I'm not saying that, but when you've gotten used to our guys beating up on almost anyone who comes in here, it's just a bit surprising to be a part of. It's obvious that we have a very good team though, so I know they'll be able to take something good from it and use the experience as motivation for the rest of the season," Liberty hockey fan Erika Peterson said.
Liberty will now look to re-gear for next weekend's games against the University of Pittsburgh, putting the losses behind them, while not completely purging them from their collective memory.
"These were two big games that we really wanted to win, but we can't get too down over it. There will be opportunities for second chances and we'll just have to be better prepared at those times. There's no doubt that we have the talent to beat the big teams in our league, it's just a matter of coming together as a team right now to respond to this," Wilson said after the game.
"These games have been a wake up call for us and have shown us that we all need to be focused together and on the same page as a team. Sometimes a loss like this jumpstarts a team, so we hope that this will be a turning point for us on our way to success."
LU vs. University of Pittsburgh
LU Wins 7-3; and 3-1