Heading into St. Cloud, Minn., to take on the Huskies is never a simple task. That task is even tougher when you factor in the nation's top scorer, Mark Hartigan, and of NCAA's top goaltenders, Dean Weasler.
Add into the equation that St. Cloud State, the top-ranked team in the country only three weeks ago, had dropped decisions in each of the preceding weekends to fall to No. 5 in the nation.
The Chargers came out ready to play on Friday night after their two-week layoff. Junior netminder Mark Byrne kept UAH in the game turning away 12 shots in the opening period to head into the first intermission tied at zero. The Huskies finally got on the board eight minutes into the second period as Jeff Finger scored the unassisted game winner. SCSU put up a pair of third period goals to win the contest 3-0 with Weasler picking up his sixth career shutout as he improved to a stellar 14-3-2 on the season. Falling to 7-7-0 on the year, Byrne was rewarded for his 34 save effort being selected as the game's third star.
Either playing on the oversized rink on Friday night or playing hard and still coming up short must have taken something out of the Chargers on Saturday night as the Huskies decided to make a strong showing as why they should reclaim their top ranking.
Just over two minutes into the contest, Hartigan scored his 25th goal of the season to give SCSU an early 1-0 lead. Junior defenseman Tyler Butler responded for the Chargers at the 9:10 mark of the first taking a Steve Charlebois pass and slipping it past Weasler to knot the game at one.
Unfortunately for the blue and white, that's as close as the Chargers would come the rest of the way. Aided by UAH penalties the Huskies took the advantage and scored four power-play goals before the end of the second period to take a commanding 5-2 lead into the second intermission. The Chargers lone answer came from Charlebois, who was assisted by juniors Joel Bresciani and Jason Hawes.
St. Cloud, UAH's last non-conference opponent, would tack on two more goals in the third period dropping Byrne's record to 7-8-0 on the season. The Chargers finally return to CHA action this weekend having not faced a conference foe since Dec. hosting Findlay before traveling to Colorado Springs, Colo., and a two-game set with the Air Force Academy.
UAH-SCSU Game 1 Boxscore
UAH-SCSU Game 2 Boxscore
