Men’s hockey sweeps Colonials, 16-2

On a crisp night in Lynchburg, the Flames DI hockey team iced the Colonials to sweep the two game series. After beating Robert Morris on Friday night 6-0, the Flames demolished them in game two on Saturday by a score of 10-2.

The Flames scoring attack was really a team effort, as seven players scored at least one goal. Sophomore forward Rick Turner scored a hat trick along with assisting on another goal. Other players that helped out were freshman forward Lindsay LeBlanc, who scored a goal and added three assists and junior forward Brent Boschman, who had four assists.

Sophomore goalie Blair Bennett also played well, allowing only two goals in 60 minutes of action. Head coach Kirk Handy commented after the game, saying he knew Bennett would want at least one of those goals back but still thought he played well. “Overall, Blair had a very strong weekend and it was nice to see, because Clayton had a very strong weekend last weekend and then Blair followed it up with a strong weekend this weekend,” Handy said.

The score does not accurately reflect the feel of the game.

The Flames only led 5-2 going into the final period but scored five goals in the last 20 minutes. Coach Handy said there was nothing special that went into the 2nd intermission speech. “Our message wasn’t on scoring five goals. It was on playing our style of hockey. We had to tighten up a bit. At the end of the second period, we started running around a bit. After we took care of that, I think it was a mentality shift of ‘Look, we are a better hockey team here. We’re playing down to their level. We’re letting them play with us. When we were able to tweak that, it made a big difference.”

The Flames will face stiff competition next weekend as they play in the ASHA showcase tournament in Springfield, Ill.

Liberty will soon play the likes of Robert Morris Illinois, Kent State and Arizona State, who are all ranked in the top 25. Coach Handy spoke about the upcoming tournament and what his team has to do to be successful.

“Well, again, we need to continue on playing a strong 60 minutes of hockey. I think a big thing we need to learn how to do is play like an elite hockey team,” Handy said, “At this tournament, we’re going to find out when we play the teams we’re playing that they are all strong teams and that we are going to have to play our A game every night. So we’re excited to know we have three games against three strong teams that are going to challenge us and that’s a key component for us.”

Handy also expressed his excitement about the upcoming month and the tests that his team will face.

“I think what it’s going to do this weekend is be a good barometer for where we are going to be. We’re going to play them and then we have a strong October coming up where we play the national champions, Davenport University, then Adrian who ended up in the final four this last year. Again, it’s going to be a good barometer for where are our program is at.”

The DI hockey team will not return home until Oct. 14 to play Kennesaw State at 7:30 p.m.