Nationals: Five Flames hockey teams head off to battle for titles

Regular season hockey has concluded, and the ACHA and AAU national tournaments are all that await Liberty University hockey. The Flames will have four of the five teams repping the red and blue in St. Louis March 7-17, and the men’s D3 team will play in the AAU National Championship in West Chester, Pennsylvania March 6-13. The men’s D1 and D2 teams, along with the women’s D1 and D2 teams, will all make the trip to Missouri for a star-studded postseason.

After a long and eventful 2023-2024 season, the Liberty Flames men’s D1 hockey team looks to take things one step further than it did a year ago and claim its first national championship title. The Flames are set to travel to St. Louis for the ACHA National Championships, where they have a first-round bye. 

As the team enters the national tournament, Head Coach Kirk Handy has a couple of things that the team has been honing in on during practice the last several days. 

“I’m making sure that we refine our systems; I think that’s number one,” Handy said. “Number two is we are working on some conditioning, and that’s another important one for us. Then, number three, we’re working on special teams, and we’re going to do that by playing a little scrimmage with (the men’s) Division II team. 

Even though the Flames have a first-round bye, Handy talked about how important it was to experiment with different lines toward the end of the season and how some of those changes will be used in the team’s first game.

“I think one of the things we’re doing is Jackson (Vercellono) will play with (Daniel) Schwenke and (Brett) Gammer, and we feel like they’ll give a little more scoring punch on that line,” Handy said. “(We are also planning on) moving (Ryan) Finch up with Truett (Olson) and (Jacob) Kalandyk, and we feel good about that one as well.” 

Will this finally be the year that Liberty hangs a banner at the LaHaye Ice Center? The Flames will square off against either the University of Mary or West Chester University in the second round of the ACHA tournament Saturday, March 9 at 4:45 p.m. CDT.

On the women’s side, the Liberty women’s D1 hockey team has a chance at winning its sixth national championship in a row. With the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye, the Flames have the opportunity for a six-peat March 17. 

The Lady Flames did not have the same success that they normally have in a season, but they still managed to finish 21-4-2. The team also finished 13-2-1 at the LaHaye Ice Center and proficiently defeated some of the top teams in the ACHA. If Liberty can continue that excellence in St. Louis, it will put itself in a great position to bring home another title. 

Adrian College and Midland University headline potential spoilers for Liberty’s national championship hopes. These two programs gave the Flames three of their four losses during the regular season. 

After losing captain Josh Harrell to injury early in the season, the men’s D2 hockey team knew that it would need to find ways to win some big games. The team finished 19-10 (15-3 at home) to end the 2023-2024 season, and it did enough to pick up an auto-bid right to the ACHA National Championships. The Liberty men’s D2 team will have a little bit of a different format than the men’s and women’s D1 teams, however, as it will play three pool play games to start out the tournament.

Game one will feature the Flames versus the University of Providence Monday, March 11 at 11:45 a.m. CDT. Game two will showcase the Flames versus Army (West Point) Tuesday, March 12 at 12 p.m. CDT. Finally, the Flames will take on the Lindenwood Lions in a top-three showdown Wednesday, March 13 at 5:45 p.m. CDT. 

“You kind of look at this and wonder, ‘Why is the No. 2 and No. 3 team in the same pool?’” Liberty men’s D2 Head Coach Ben Hughes said. “The practical answer is that all of it is predetermined prior to the season even starting. … But our mindset is that you are going to have to beat good teams regardless of if it is the first game or the fifth game.” 

The Flames are hoping for different results than what they were handed a season ago in the National Championships, where they lost two out of three games, with both losses coming by only one goal. 

Whether this year will be the one that the men’s D2 team breaks through and wins a championship is yet to be seen, but the team has made the necessary additions and has the right leadership to make a run on the big stage in St. Louis. 

The Lady Flames D2 hockey team remained in the top five following the DVCHC Championships Feb. 24-25 in Harrington, Delaware. Since they stuck around in the top five of the Southeast region rankings, they have qualified for the National Championships. 

Liberty finished with an 11-7-2 record to end the season, and it also put up a strong showing at home this season with an 8-2-1 record. Now, with the regular season over, the Flames are headed into pool play as part of the 2024 ACHA women’s D2 National Championship. 

The Lady Flames will have a tough schedule as they open things up, squaring off against Providence College (ranked first in the Northeast) Tuesday, March 12 at 10 a.m. CDT. Then, they play the University of Delaware Wednesday, March 13 at 3 p.m. CDT before rounding out pool play against the University of Saint Thomas Thursday, March 14 at 3:15 p.m. CDT. This is the first time that the women’s D2 team has gone to the playoffs since its trip to the ACHA tournament was canceled back in 2020. 

The only team not fighting for a title in St. Louis is the men’s D3 team, who will compete at the AAU National Tournament rather than the ACHA Tournament.

Despite a disheartening loss to High Point in the first round of the ACCHL conference tournament, the men’s D3 hockey team still has its ticket punched to the AAU National Championship in West Chester, Pennsylvania March 6-13.   

This season, the team has a nice mixture of veterans and rookies as well as two former Liberty hockey players now leading the team — Head Coach Josh Wagner and Assistant Coach Jaime Ross.

With a solid 11-6 record to end the season, the Flames will be in Pool E of the AAU tournament, taking on Bishop’s University, Clemson and Vanderbilt. 

Clingman is a sports reporter for the Liberty Champion. Follow him on X.