The Liberty University Men’s Division I Hockey team began its season Sept. 5 with a 4-1 victory in an exhibition game against the West Chester Wolves.
Both teams struggled to gain momentum in the opening period, but the Flames continued to hold possession of the puck after winning the opening faceoff.
“I thought we started a little slow. That’s going to probably happen at the beginning of the year, right?” Handy said. “As the game went on, we got stronger and looked a little more like what we want to see.”
With tempers starting to flare near the end of the first period, a brawl broke out between the Flames and Wolves after junior goalie Konrad Kausch was taken down by Wolves defenseman Mikko Rippon.
This resulted in a game misconduct and a 5-minute penalty for Rippon. Liberty sophomore forward Kal Essenmacher, senior forward Aidan Carney and West Chester forward Markus Lunski were all given 2-minute penalties for roughing.
Following the scrum on the ice, Flames junior center Hayden DeMars snapped one between the pipes with 54 seconds remaining in the period. He was assisted by sophomore center Tucker Shields and senior forward Samuel Feamster.
“It’s been a long three weeks of just battling against the boys, so it was nice we could put our systems and everything to the test,” DeMars said. “Definitely felt good getting the first one on the board.”
The second period began with a rocky start for the Flames when Carney received a penalty for slashing only three minutes into the second period. Just over a minute later, Feamster and Lunski joined their respective penalty boxes for cross-checking and roughing. These penalties helped the Wolves tie up the game with a goal from forward Dallas Glenn assisted by defenseman Nico Pasquale and forward Grant Lucas.
The Wolves’ momentum came to a halt when Shields slotted one between the pipes for a power play goal to close out the second period. He received assists from sophomore defenseman Michael Adamek and DeMars. At the end of the second period Liberty was in the lead 2-1.
“We need more shots on goal. I think they may have outshot us that game,” Essenmacher said. “If we get more pucks in the net and we play more compact in the D-zone, we’ll be all better.”
The final period started with excellent saves by West Chester goalie Sebastian Pribula and Liberty goalies Kausch and senior Nick Bernstein.
“I thought our goaltending was excellent tonight. Both Nick Bernstein and Konrad played awesome,” Handy said.
Junior defenseman Luke Anderson put one in the back of the net giving the Flames a 3-1 lead with assists coming from senior forward Ryan Finch and junior forward Luke Munroe.
With the third period coming to a close, Essenmacher put another one on the board, which secured the Flames 4-1 victory with an assist from senior defenseman Connor Diem and freshman forward Seth Huygen.
“Our big goal each and every day is to be the best version of Liberty Hockey that we can be in practice. And as we do that, it’ll translate to the games on the weekends,” Handy said.
The Flames hit the ice again for a weekend series against the North Carolina State University Wolfpack Sept. 12-13. Liberty will host the second game Sept. 13 in the LaHaye Ice Center at 7 p.m., which will be available to stream on ESPN+.
Schlösser is the asst. sports editor for the Liberty Champion. Kimmel is a sports reporter for the Liberty Champion.