# 2020–21 LIU Sharks men's ice hockey season

The 2020–21 LIU Sharks men's ice hockey season was the inaugural season of play for the program at the Division I level. The Sharks represented Long Island University and were coached by Brett Riley, in his 1st season.

## Season

Prior to the season, LIU entered into a scheduling partnership with Atlantic Hockey. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, LIU would schedule games against members of Atlantic Hockey but would not be eligible for the conference tournament. In August, the NCAA granted a blanket waiver for all winter sports, not counting the 2020–21 season against eligibility. This gave all LIU players an additional year of college hockey.

## Recruiting

Due to LIU not possessing a club team the previous season, the entire varsity roster was assembled from scratch. Eleven transfers from other college programs were used as the framework for the inaugural team roster while 15 freshman were part of LIU's first recruiting class. At first, it was expected that the six non-graduate transfer players would not play for LIU in its first season. However, in December the NCAA changed its transfer rules, dropping the requirement that students had to sit out a year when changing schools.

## Roster

As of October 8, 2020.

## Standings

2020–21 NCAA Division I Independent ice hockey standingsvte :
| | Overall record | Overall record | Overall record | Overall record | Overall record | Overall record |
| | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA |
| Arizona State | 26 | 7 | 16 | 3 | 68 | 106 |
| Long Island | 13 | 3 | 10 | 0 | 23 | 55 |
| Rankings: USCHO.com Top 20 Poll ||||||||

## Schedule and results

| Date | Time | Opponent$^#$ | Site | Decision | Result | Attendance | Record |
| Regular Season ||||||||||
| November 19 | 10:37 AM | at Holy Cross* | Hart Center • Worcester, Massachusetts | Metcalf | W 3–2 $^{OT}$ | 0 | 1–0–0 |
| November 22 | 4:00 PM | at Holy Cross* | Hart Center • Worcester, Massachusetts | Metcalf | L 2–5 | 0 | 1–1–0 |
| December 11 | 5:00 PM | at RIT* | MassMutual Center • Springfield, Massachusetts | Metcalf | W 4–3 | 0 | 2–1–0 |
| December 12 | 5:00 PM | at RIT* | MassMutual Center • Springfield, Massachusetts | Mundinger | L 1–5 | 0 | 2–2–0 |
| January 2 | 2:05 PM | at #20 American International* | MassMutual Center • Springfield, Massachusetts | Metcalf | L 1–2 | 0 | 2–3–0 |
| January 13 | 2:05 PM | at #20 American International* | MassMutual Center • Springfield, Massachusetts | Metcalf | L 2–5 | 0 | 2–4–0 |
| January 15 | 5:00 PM | at Army* | Tate Rink • West Point, New York | Metcalf | L 2–5 | 0 | 2–5–0 |
| January 16 | 7:00 PM | at Army* | Tate Rink • West Point, New York | Purpura | W 3–2 $^{OT}$ | 0 | 3–5–0 |
| January 22 | 7:00 PM | at Liberty* | Lahaye Ice Center • Lynchburg, Virginia (Exhibition) | | L 1–2 | | |
| January 23 | 3:30 PM | at Liberty* | Lahaye Ice Center • Lynchburg, Virginia (Exhibition) | | W 4–0 | | |
| February 4 | 7:00 PM | at #19 Robert Morris* | Colonials Arena • Neville Township, Pennsylvania | Purpura | L 1–4 | 0 | 3–6–0 |
| February 5 | 3:00 PM | at #19 Robert Morris* | Colonials Arena • Neville Township, Pennsylvania | Purpura | L 0–4 | 0 | 3–7–0 |
| February 22 | 6:00 PM | at #12 Quinnipiac* | People's United Center • Hamden, Connecticut | Metcalf | L 1–7 | 0 | 3–8–0 |
| February 26 | 5:00 PM | at Army* | Tate Rink • West Point, New York | Metcalf | L 0–5 | 24 | 3–9–0 |
| February 27 | 7:00 PM | at Army* | Tate Rink • West Point, New York | Metcalf | L 3–6 | 86 | 3–10–0 |
| *Non-conference game. $^#$Rankings from USCHO.com Poll. All times are in Eastern Time. ||||||||||

## Scoring statistics

| Name | Position | Games | Goals | Assists | Points | PIM |
| Nolan Welsh | F | 12 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 4 |
| Zack Bross | F | 11 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 31 |
| Mitch Meek | D | 11 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 4 |
| Christian Rajic | C | 10 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 24 |
| Max Balinson | D | 11 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 8 |
| Gustav Müller | F | 12 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| Jordan Di Cicco | D | 13 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| Jack Quinn | F | 13 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| Jacob Franczak | C | 12 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Preston Brodziak | F | 8 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Arseni Smekhnov | C | 10 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Brett Humberstone | D | 11 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 19 |
| Mat Harris | D | 13 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| Garrett Worth | F | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Madoka Suzuki | LW | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Tanner Schachle | LW | 9 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 24 |
| Nolan McElhaney | D | 12 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
| Derek Osik | F | 13 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Stephen Mundinger | G | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Vincent Purpura | G | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tanner Hopps | F | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Carter Ekberg | D | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Garrett Metcalf | G | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aaron White | F | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Connor Szmul | F | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rob McCollum | D | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Bench | - | - | - | - | - | 6 |
| Total | | | 23 | 33 | 56 | 182 |

## Goaltending statistics

| Name | Games | Minutes | Wins | Losses | Ties | Goals Against | Saves | Shut Outs | SV % | GAA |
| Vincent Purpura | 4 | 211 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 111 | 0 | .902 | 3.40 |
| Garrett Metcalf | 9 | 537 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 36 | 329 | 0 | .901 | 4.02 |
| Stephen Mundinger | 1 | 29 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 0 | .800 | 6.08 |
| Empty Net | - | 7 | - | - | - | 4 | - | - | - | - |
| Total | 13 | 786 | 3 | 10 | 0 | 55 | 452 | 0 | .892 | 4.20 |

## Rankings

| Poll | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week |
| Poll | Pre | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 (Final) |
| USCHO.com | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | - | NR |
| USA Today | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
USCHO did not release a poll in week 20.