Zirnis named CHA Player of the Week
Niagara University, NY (February 5, 2001) - Charger forward Karlis Zirnis was named the College Hockey America Offensive Player of the Week. The 5-11, 185-pound sophomore from Riga, Latvia, registered two goals and two assists in Chargers weekend sweep of Bemidji State.
On Friday night, Zirnis notched a goal and an assist to help the Chargers take a 3-2 victory. On Saturday night, Zirnis scored the tying goal for UAH midway through the second period and set up Ryan McCormack's game-winning goal in the third period.
For the season, Zirnis has 11 goals and nine assists for 20 points in 26 games.
Next Series: vs. Wayne State, at the Von Braun Center on February 9-10..Faceoff on Friday night is at 7:05 P.M. On Saturday, the Senior Day game has an afternoon faceoff at 1:05 p.m. Only Friday's game will be broadcast live on the Internet via www.liveonthenet.com.
Chargers sweep Bemidji State
Todd Watts, UAH Sports Information
The Chargers extended their unbeaten streak in College Hockey America this weekend as they completed the season sweep of the Bemidji State Beavers. The Chargers are currently on a four game winning streak in the CHA and are unbeaten in their last eight conference games. UAH has swept Wayne State, Air Force and Bemidji State and taken three points from Findlay.
On Friday night, the Chargers won 3-2, in a game that saw Bemidji score two very questionable goals and the Chargers have a goal waved off.
After skating to a scoreless tie in the first period, the scoring broke lose in the second when Karlis Zirnis scored his 10th goal of the season at 5:17 of the period. Dwayne Blais started the play from behind the Beaver net. He passed to Zirnis who was one on one against the Bemidji State goalie Grady Hunt. Hunt dropped and Zirnis sent the puck over his shoulder and just under the cross-bar to make the score 1-0.
Bemidji answered back with a goal from Travis Barnes at 18:29 of the second period. Barnes gained the Charger zone and sent a rocket of a shot from the top of the left face-off circle just over the top of Mark Bryne's right leg pad and into the net. On the play, the UAH faithful went into a frenzy over an apparent no-call by the officials which would have stopped the action before Barnes shot was fired.
However, the loud boos quickly turned to cheers as the Chargers took just 16 seconds to answer the Bemidji goal. Mike Funk scored his 7th goal of the season at 18:55 of the period to give the Chargers the lead back at 2-1.
The Chargers scored again at 15:55 of the third on a power-play goal from Mike Funk. The goal proved to be the game winner.
The Beavers would cut the lead to 3-2 on a goal by Clay Simmons. Once again, the Charger fans went ballistic. On Simmons score, Byrne appeared to make the initial save with the the puck securely between his pads. Then, a Bemidji player rammed into him, knocking him off the puck and allowing the puck to trickle to the back of the net. No penalties resulted from this play and the goal stood.
Not too long after that, the Chargers had a goal disallowed on a similar play. The puck clearly entered the net well before the net was knocked off its moorings and well before any contact was made with the Bemidji goaltender. Unfortunately, the goal was waved off. But, inspite of it all, the Chargers walked away with the win despite being out shot 33-32.
On Saturday, the Chargers had a heavy shot advantage, but had to battle to scrap out a 2-1 win. After one period of play the Chargers had outshot the Beavers by a 26-9 margin. However, the only statistic that mattered was the score. The Chargers trailed 1-0 after the opening period. At 15:14 of the first the Beavers' Bill Methven received a beautiful pass and smacked a shot underneath the cross-bar past Byrne who never had a real shot at making a save.
At 11:55 in the second period, Zirnis scored on the power-play to tie the game at one apiece. The game winning goal was then scored by the Chargers' Ryan McCormack at 7:46 of the third period on another power-play. Both of the goals were blue collar efforts.
The Chargers found Beaver goalie Dannie Morgan a tough customer. The Chargers ended-up outshooting the Beavers 51-25. But, Morgan was incredible, stopping 49 of 51 shots. He also ended up earning the third star of the game despite the loss.
The Chargers' special teams were absolutely phenomenal as they held Bemidji to 0-9 on the power-play with just six shots in nine man-advantages on the weekend. On the other side of the puck the Chargers were 3-10 with the man-advantage and had a total of 23 shots on goal while on the power-play.
The Chargers are ranked number one in the CHA while on the penalty kill, smothering 94% of opponent power play opportunities. The weekend series will solidify that standing as they added nine penalty kills to the list. With the man advantage the Chargers have been ranked 4th in the conference. However, that stat should change after this weekend as the Chargers were 30% efficient at converting with the man-advantage.
Game 1 Boxscore
Game 2 Boxscore
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