Men's ACHA Division II ice hockey earned a series sweep with an exciting 3-2 win over Liberty in a shootout Saturday afternoon at the LaHaye Ice Center in Lynchburg, Virginia. The Lions had to come from behind twice to eventually force overtime and a shootout that needed six rounds to determine a victor.
The Flames took an early lead on an even-strength goal at 5:19 of the first and it remained 1-0 Liberty for the rest of the opening frame and midway through the second when
Michael Mullen split the pipes off a feed from
Nick Jones to tie the contest at the 9:22 mark. The rest of the game was filled with penalties that had one team or the other on the power play for most of the time.
That led the second score for the Flames. After a slashing penalty was called on Lindenwood at 14:46, it appeared that the Lions might kill it off, but a turnover in their zone led to an unassisted Liberty power play goal and a 2-1 lead at 16:41.
After matching minors at the end of the period, four-on-four time carried over into the third. Just before that expired, the Flames took another penalty at the 37-second mark, then took yet another at 2:25. After several minutes of penalty killing, the Liberty defense finally cracked when Mullen scored his second of the game with help from
Gavin Delfosse and
Jack Louko at 3:11.
It remained deadlocked 2-2 for the rest of regulation, forcing a five-minute overtime session. Both teams defended well in the extra time resulting in limited scoring chances, despite the Flames taking another penalty with 1:05 remaining. Lindenwood was not able to capitalize sending the game to a shootout.
The Flames shot first in the shootout and beat the Lions netminder
Justin Grenon, but Mullen, coming off his two-goal performance, continued his hot hand and matched the Liberty effort. The Flames came up empty in rounds two and three, but so did
Stanley Lucas and
Austin Meers for Lindenwood. That sent the shootout into extra rounds tied 1-1.
Grenon denied the Liberty shot in round four so
Gage Vierzba had a chance to end it but couldn't. The Flames scored in round five, so the Lions had to match to extend the shootout.
Gavin Delfosse stepped over the boards and did just that, forcing round six. After Grenon stopped the Liberty shooter, Lindenwood had a chance for the win. Louko provided the heroics to give the Lions the victory.
Lindenwood outshot the Flames 46-35 and Grenon stopped 33 of the 35 pucks he faced to get the win in goal. Liberty was called for 34-minutes of penalties and the Lions scored once on nine power play opportunities. Lindenwood took 22-minutes of penalties and the Flames scored once on nine man-advantage chances as well.
With the victory, the Lions improved to 23-2 overall and have now won nine in a row. Lindenwood returns to home ice to host Miami (Ohio) University January 17-18. The puck drops at 8:10 p.m. Friday night and at 2:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon at the Centene Community Ice Center in Maryland Heights, Missouri.
