No juice in the Orange: Liberty men’s D1 hockey sweeps Syracuse to open semester

After over a month of silence, the LaHaye Ice Center was revived Jan. 19-20 as the men’s division 1 hockey team hosted the Syracuse Orange in their first series of the semester.  

The Flames’ first two home games came just one week removed from team’s 10-day mission trip to Finland, where they hosted hockey camps, played against European competition and worked with a local church in furthering the gospel to the Finnish people.  

In an attempt to get their legs back under them, Liberty pulled off a 6-3 victory in game one – but not in a fashion to their liking. The Flames racked up 44 penalty minutes in the process, in which two of the penalties resulted in one-game suspensions for sophomore defensemen Reid Bogenholm and Laz Kaebel.  

Riding an eight-game winning streak, Liberty hoped to clean things up for round two, which was the team’s final Midnight Mayhem contest of the semester. Taking the ice in front of a sold-out home crowd, Liberty was aware of the defensive prowess that would be needed to compensate for the loss of two of its defensemen.  

“We’ve all played together in practice and we all know each other’s game,” freshman Nick Pomerleau said of playing without Kaebel and Bogenholm. “It’s not easy, but it’s familiar to us. That first shift maybe is a little different, but then you’re going.” 

Pomerleau found the back of the net first, capitalizing on the man advantage and finding the five hole to put the Flames up with 13:51 remaining in the first period. 

The Orange, however, answered with a speed and physicality that was evidently different from their game one approach. Liberty found themselves in penalty trouble once again, giving the Orange a 5-on-3 opportunity. Syracuse defenseman Connor Chesner knotted the game up with a top shelf score, quieting the buoyant crowd.  

Minutes later, Orange forward Brock Alvers found himself on the breakaway, firing another one passed graduate goaltender Hunter Virostek to give his team a stunning 2-1 lead.  

“They definitely took us out of our comfort zone there and made us play more of a physical style,” senior forward Jason Foltz said. “We kind of had to change up and be a little bit more physical on our end, which was good to see because you’re going to need that come nationals time.” 

The second period, however, saw the Flames’ power play units come alive. Just 50 seconds into the second frame, Foltz and junior defenseman Kevin Bite worked to get the puck to the team’s leading scorer, junior forward Jacob Kalandyk, who sniped his fourth goal of the weekend. Kalandyk’s score was followed by a go-ahead-goal less than a minute later, as sophomore defenseman Grant Morton’s shot was redirected by senior forward Brett Gammer to the right corner of the net.  

Liberty found itself on the power play not long after, adding two more goals from senior forwards DJ Schwenke and Captain Matt Bartel, who converted on a 5-on-3 opportunity to stretch his team’s lead to 5-2.  

“We saw their weaknesses that they had on their PK, so we took advantage of that, made sure we could get those passes through the steam to each other, and it worked out really well,” Foltz said. 

While the Orange attempted to crawl back with a 5-on-3 goal of their own from forward Jack Wren, Bite responded shortly after with a wrister to give Liberty a 6-3 lead. Senior forward Joe Clark added on in the final period, scoring his first goal of the season from the slot with 10 minutes remaining to play.  

“I think after the first period we kind of regrouped, we just talked about getting it in deep and going hard, getting pucks on net,” Clark said.  

Syracuse put one more puck passed Virostek in the final frame, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the 7-4 deficit. As Liberty celebrated in the early hours of Sunday morning, they also celebrated the fact that each of their seven scores on the night stemmed from different goal scorers. Of the team’s 13 goals on the weekend, 10 different names were on the scoresheet.  

“That’s how you’re going to win a national championship is depth in your lineup,” Clark said. “Getting guys scoring goals that aren’t usually offensive … That’s how you win big games.” 

After adding two more victories to their record, the Flames will now prepare to visit the Stony Brook Seawolves Jan. 27-28 in Long Island, New York. Liberty swept the Seawolves in their previous series in November and will look to do the same before welcoming the No. 2 ranked Adrian Bulldogs to the Mountain. 

“I’m a big believer that we can win out the rest of the season,” Foltz said. “Since we started this streak that we’ve been on, it just motivates us. I mean it wasn’t our best two performances out there these past two games. We got the win and that’s what matters to me.” 

Cory is the sports editor for the Liberty Champion. Follow her on X