Sept. 18, 2009

Box Score

LYNCHBURG, Va. - In their 2009-2010 season opener, the Davenport D2 Hockey team failed to close the door on Liberty University in their own barn as they allowed three 3rd period goals and an early one in OT to fall 7-6 to the Flames. DU will look to rebound on Saturday night at 7:30 pm against LU.

With less than two weeks of practice time with a whole new team, the Panthers came out of the gates hot against their ACHA D1 rivals from Liberty. Newcomer Sean McWhorter (Lansing, Mich.) got things started with his first goal as a Panther at the 15:43 mark on an assist from Adam Thomas (Kentwood, Mich.) and Jonathon Frank (Wallingford, Conn.).

Thomas then added his first goal of the season on a pass from Paul Ziemke (Caledonia, Mich.).

Opening up the 2nd period, DU got four goals from Ziemke, Thomas (his second of the night), Brit Ouellette (Windsor, Ontario) and Ben Dykstra (Kentwood, Mich.) to take a commanding 6-3 lead into the final period.

Unfortunately, the defense did not hold up as the Panthers allowed two quick goals within the first 1:03 of the 3rd that made the final period a lot more interesting.

With the Panthers staring a victory in the face with under 30 seconds to go, a Flame got a good bounce off a skate of Davenport and got a shot past the DU goaltender to tie the game with 26 seconds remaining which forced overtime.

Then the Flames carried that momentum into overtime and scored pretty quickly to win the season opener for both teams 7-6.

The loss is the first for Davenport in their last 14 games dating back to last season and is only their second loss to Liberty in the past two years after beating them 3-1 in four games last year.

DU will take on Liberty again on Saturday night at 7:30 and you can listen to the game live by clicking here.