It turned out to be a near-miss weekend for the Chargers as they took on the Wayne State Warriors in Fraser, Mich., over the weekend. The Chargers got things going first on Friday night as freshman defender Doug Watkins netted his second goal of the season taking advantage of the UAH power play to put the blue and white ahead 1-0 at the 10:29 mark of the first period.
Junior defender Ryan Leasa used a man advantage and pushed the UAH lead to two before the close of the period scoring his second goal in as many games after suffering through a 53-game streak of not scoring a goal. The Charger defense went to sleep clutching the 2-0 lead as the Warriors rattled off four unanswered goals to take a 4-2 lead.
With an empty net and an extra attacker on the ice, freshman winger Keith Rowe pulled UAH within one goal at 4-3 with ten seconds remaining in the contest. Playing in his home state for the first time in his collegiate career, Rowe, a Livonia, Mich., native, netted his fifth goal of the year.
Charger netminder Mark Byrne took his first loss of the season in conference play in the game turning away 28 warrior shots in the defeat. Having won his first four CHA contests, Byrne's conference record fell to 4-1 and his overall record dropped to 6-2.
Saturday night's contest closely resembled that of Friday's outing as the Chargers again jumped out to a 1-0 lead. Junior left wing Karlis Zirnis added to his team lead in goals a mere 58 seconds in the match making the power play work for the Chargers.
The score remained at 1-0 until 18:20 into the second period when the Warriors turned the power play into their advantage tying the match up with the power-play goal. WSU took their first lead at the 3:31 mark of the third period as Dusty Kingston scored the second Warrior power-play goal of the night to go ahead 2-1.
The quit was not in the Chargers however, as junior Jason Hawes knocked in a power-play measure just over three minutes later to tie the game at three. With 2:20 left to play, Steve Milosevski scored his fourth goal of the season snapping a 13-game scoreless streak putting UAH ahead 3-2.
Needing to only ride out the two-plus minutes to earn a split on the road things looked great for the Chargers. Wayne State had a different idea as they pulled netminder Dave Guerrera and Billy Collins scored with a mere 22 second remaining to knot the game up at three.
Neither team managed much offense in the overtime period with the two squads getting a pair of shots each as the squads each earned a point in the CHA standings for the tie.
Sophomore Adam MacLean saw action for the Chargers between the pipes making 38 saves as his record went to 4-5-1. The Chargers and Warriors take the next two weekends off for the holidays before meeting up again Dec. 28th and 29th at the Von Braun Center.
UAH-Wayne State Game 1 Boxscore
UAH-Wayne State Game 2 Boxscore