The Massachusetts women’s club hockey team dropped back-to-back games against Liberty University over the weekend with an 11-0 lost on Saturday. The Flames (9-1-0) fired a barrage of pucks that the Minutewomen (2-5-3) struggled to defend.
Liberty picked up right where they left off on Friday night. The Flames wasted no time scoring their first goal when Liberty’s Hayley Lee got on a fastbreak and found herself facing UMass goalie Colleen Mcmakin. At nine minutes and 43 seconds left in the first period, the first goal opened the floodgates for the Flames.
Liberty’s skill and talent was on display as they were scoring in a plethora of ways, whether it was a far shot from its defensemen Madison Glynn or scrappy goals through several Minutewomen defenders.
“They have good players, they are well coached, they have a lot of experience on the team and we didn’t match up,” head coach Bill Wright said.
UMass allowed five goals in the first period as the Flames had puck control for a majority of the period. Liberty’s elite defense throughout the game made it very hard for the Minutewomen to score, even on their power plays.
With eight minutes left in the third period, UMass had its best opportunity to score when they had two consecutive chances during a power play but Flames goalie, Brooklyn Adams, stopped both shot attempts. Out of the 19 attempts the Minutewomen produced, not a single one got past Adams.
Compared to UMass’ 19 shots on goal, Liberty fired off 57 throughout the contest as Flames’ players were quicker to the puck and more physical than the Minutewomen. This along with fast and precise passes caused Liberty to have control of the game and keep UMass in a constant state of defense.
The Minutewomen did have a nice stretch of defense in the third period where they kept the Flames scoreless for most of the period. It looked like UMass could’ve left the game on a good note by shutting out this dominant Liberty team for a period, but even that dream was shot.
With just three minutes and 30 seconds left, Flames Brooklyn Voortman hit the dagger, quieting the supporting crowd to outscore the Minutewomen in all three periods.
“Probably played a little harder. I mean we had nothing to lose so you just got to leave it out there. It was better but not good enough by any means,” Wright said.
UMass displayed its resilience to have a close third period with Liberty especially with the onslaught that happened in the second period. The Flames stacked on five goals in a span of seven minutes in the second period, doubling its score from the first.
One of those goals came from Samantha Peebles during a power play with 14 minutes remaining. Liberty capitalized on every power play while the Minutewomen did not cash in on any.
The Flames goals came from a number of players, with the most scored by Isabella Hervert who ended the contest with a hat trick.
Next up, UMass will be on the road to face the University of Rhode Island on Friday Nov. 22. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. at the Boss Ice Arena.
Jonathan Charlier can be reached at [email protected].
