Men’s D1 Hockey Falls to Florida Gulf Coast Eagles

The Flames Men’s Division I Hockey team suffered its first loss of the season against the Men’s Division II Florida Gulf Coast Eagles 4-3 in front of a sold-out rink for CFAW and Family Weekend.

While the Flames were coming hot off a win in their season opener last weekend, they had to keep their skates sharp for this contest against the Eagles, who have made it to the ACHA Division II Final Four seven seasons in the last 10 years. The Eagles’ defense was determined to snuff out the Flames, but Liberty University fought back hard. 

Flames freshman forward Kal Essenmacher finally found the back of the net halfway into the first period in a one-on-one breakaway opportunity. This was his first goal as a Flame, assisted by senior defenseman Nathan Cox and sophomore defenseman Nick Pomerleau, and one of the few mistakes by Eagles goaltender Keegan Wise in the game.

“It felt unreal. I’m truly so happy to be here,” Essenmacher said. “It’s such a great group we have, a great coaching staff and the best fans in the league.”

The Flames appeared to be improving coming into the second period, but the lead did not last long. Tensions were high on the ice, resulting in a combined total of 11 penalties and 35 total penalty minutes. Of those 35 minutes, 15 were due to a major penalty committed by Flames freshman forward Mac Ratzlaff. The penalty came after Ratzlaff used the butt end of his stick to forcefully hit one of the Eagles below the belt.

“We took way too many penalties, and the second period was very disappointing,” Flames Head Coach Kirk Handy said postgame. “That takes away the momentum of the game, and we got what we deserved tonight. We deserved to be on the wrong side of this game tonight, and hats off to them (the Eagles); they played well. We didn’t play well tonight. We have to be better, but we have to be way more disciplined.”

In the second period, the Eagles sent the puck soaring into the back of the net to tie the score with just over five minutes remaining. Less than a minute later, they followed up with another shot that flew past Flames junior goaltender Nicholas Bernstein, overtaking the Flames. The Flames kept fighting, and graduate forward Jackson Vercellono scored a goal in the last minute after deflecting a long shot from Pomerleau to retie the score and end the second period.

Each team came out fired up in the final period, both determined to win. After several failed shot attempts from the Flames, the Eagles scored back-to-back goals, both by captain Jack Cohen to claim his hat trick.

Down 4-2 after Cohen’s third goal, the Flames needed a miracle, and they nearly got one. With 2:32 left in the third and final period, freshman forward Michael Debrito sent the puck flying over Wise’s left shoulder, scoring his first goal as a Flame and cutting the lead to just one. After Liberty pulled its goalie and was gifted a timely FGCU penalty, the Flames were up six skaters to the Eagles’ four. But the advantage wasn’t enough, as time expired and the Flames fell short of stopping the Eagles from flying away with the win.

“We battled until the end,” captain and junior forward Sam Feamster said. “Scoring that goal late just showed that we’re not going to give up. It’s still early in the year — now it’s just about playing to our system.”

Next up for the Flames is a road trip to the Keystone State as they take on the University of Pittsburgh in a two-game series Sept. 27 and 28.

“You don’t want to hit the panic button, and we’re not going to hit the panic button, but we’re going to hit the reset button,” Handy said.

White is the asst. sports editor for the Liberty Champion.