DIII men’s hockey swept by DII Coastal in 2021 series debut | Club Sports

January 30, 2021  |  Lynchburg, Va. 

Liberty University’s ACHA Division III men’s hockey team was dealt back-to-back losses by former ACCHL rival Coastal Carolina over the weekend at the LaHaye Ice Center, falling 4-3 in sudden-death overtime on Friday night and 5-4 on a power-play goal in the final 3 minutes of regulation on Saturday afternoon.

The Flames (2-2) swept the Chanticleers by 5-2 and 5-1 scores in Liberty’s only series of the fall semester. But Coastal turned the tide in the rematch  winning the opener, 4-3, sparked by a natural hat trick by Coastal junior captain Brenden EngTow, and Saturday’s second game, 5-4.

EngTow, the team’s MVP last season who missed the November series, tied the contest at 3 with 5:05 remaining in Game 1 before Chanticleers senior defenseman Kyle Yaffee scored the game-winner from the perimeter with 3:56 left in the 5-minute overtime.

“Friday’s game was fast and physical,” Flames Head Coach Josh Graham said. “We outplayed them, outshot them, and out-chanced them, but made two critical errors that they were able to capitalize on for their third and fourth goals. All five of our guys were puck watching and didn’t catch the trailer coming in high and on both instances, Coastal was able to get time and space and bury those chances.”

Senior forward Adam Partridge, in his first games with the DIII squad after playing goalie the past three seasons on Liberty’s DII team, netted the first goal in both contests and finished with three scores for the weekend. He put the Flames on top with 5:55 left in the second period of the opener off assists from senior defenseman Thomas Moores and sophomore Josiah Zaragoza before freshman defenseman Graham Wood scored shorthanded off assists from sophomore forwards Kenneth Fogarty and Jaime Ross at the 2:03 mark. Partridge lifted Liberty to a 3-2 lead with 13:10 left in the third period off an assist from freshman forward William Smiley following a scrum around the net.

The Flames outshot the Chanticleers, 31-26, and freshman goalie Kyle Wesbury made 22 saves.

In Saturday’s rematch, Liberty struggled early, falling down 2-0 before goals by Partridge assisted by Moores at the 5:35 mark of the first period and Wood assisted by junior defenseman Mike Eisaman with 4:26 left tied it at 2. The Flames trailed 3-2 entering the first intermission after allowing Coastal to score on a power play with 1:26 to go.

“The second period, we were able to turn it around in the first 8-9 minutes and started to connect midway through,” Graham said. “(Freshman forward Dalton) Silby got us rolling, scoring on the power play with 6:45 left, and then (sophomore forward Christian) Kline had an absolute snipe unassisted at the 5-minute mark to tie the game, 4-4.”

However, the third period remained scoreless before a five-minute major penalty assessed to the Flames with just over 3 minutes to play allowed Coastal junior center Justin Fowlkes to net the game-winner with a power-play goal at the 2:15 mark.

The Flames lost junior forward Scott Chisholm to an upper-body injury in Friday’s opener and he tried to return on Saturday, but reaggravated it.

Flames freshman forward Dalton Silby battles Coastal Carolina junior center Justin Fowlkes along the boards.Â

“We had to do some line shuffling without him, but hopefully he’ll be good when we go to Florida Gulf Coast (University, Feb. 19-21 at Hertz Arena in Fort Meyers, Fla.),” Graham said. “Coastal’s really, really physical. There was a lot of emotional adversity we had to overcome and we need to learn to do a better job of managing our emotions when things aren’t going our way.”

Liberty outshot Coastal 33-30 in the rematch with sophomore goalie Ben Algatt making 25 saves to keep the Flames in the contest.

 

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