The Chargers headed up to Niagara already a lock for the College Hockey America regular season championship, but it was the Purple Eagles who played like champions and took UAH to the woodshed 7-4 and 7-5 to close out both teams' regular season.
Scott Munroe opened in net Friday for the Chargers, and quickly let in a couple of goals, the first to Barret Ehgoetz at 4:11, the second to Bernie Sigrist at 7:29. Munroe stopped the other 7 shots in the frame, while UAH failed to get anything past Purple Eagle goaltender Rob Bonk after 7 attempts.
Ehgoetz would tally again on the Purple Eagles' first shot on goal in the second, and that would be all for Munroe, as Adam MacLean got in net and took the Chargers the rest of the way.
The Boys in Blue responded quickly, as Karlis Zirnis put home his 13th of the year at 1:17 from Craig Bushey and Doug Watkins. Jared Ross would cut the lead to one on his 18th of the season at 4:58. Niagara came back with two more of their own before the close of the period. Andrew Nahirniak blasted one from the point at 10:57, and Chris Welch would tally a power play goal on the back door at 17:25.
The Chargers came out of the gate quickly in the third, as Ross put his second past Bonk just 51 seconds in. Joe Tallari, the CHA's leading scorer, responded at 17:26. The teams would trade goals once more, as Jared Ross completed the hat trick at 18:50 and Ryan Gale put home an empty netter at 19:20 to seal the deal.
MacLean took the loss for the Chargers (0-2-0, 0-1-0 CHA) despite making 27 saves in two periods. Bonk (8-7-2, 6-1-2 CHA) got the win for the Purple Eagles. Nahirniak's goal and assist, plus his outstanding defensive play, earned him the third star. Sigrist's goal and assist got him the second star, and Ehgoetz with his two early goals got the first star.
Saturday night saw a changing of the guards, as it was Mark Byrne for the Chargers and Jeff VanNynatten for the Purple Eagles between the pipes. Things started in an eerily familiar way Saturday, as Ehgoetz would take the first marker once again at 4:06 of the first period. Keith Rowe answered just three minutes later from Ryan Brown and Gerald Overton to start a trend that would captivate the 1000 in attendance for the rest of the evening.
Sigrist scored next for the Purple Eagles at 11:43, and two minutes later the Chargers answered. The Purple Eagles' Luke Parillo ended up knocking a puck into his own net, though Steve Milosevski was credited with the goal, having thrown in the initial shot. The teams would go to the locker room tied at two.
The second period started out slowly, until Chris Welch snuck behind the Charger defense and was able to put his first of the evening home at 6:09 of the period. Craig Bushey answered at 15:08 with a goal from Tyler Butler and Ryan Leasa. Jordan Meloff's seeing-eye slap shot got through the defense on the power play with just 47 seconds left in the period to put the Purple Eagles ahead 4-3 going into the final frame.
The third period would see a trio of seconds, as Rowe tallied from Brown and Mike Funk at 5:38. Chris Welch put home his second of the night on the power play at 10:04. The the trend came to a screeching halt, as Ehgoetz put home his second of the evening just 24 seconds later to make it a 6-4 game.
Steve Charlebois would keep the Chargers in it, scoring at 13:15 from Milosevski to bring the difference back to 1, but with Mark Byrne out of the net and 10 seconds left in the game, Ehgoetz would finish the hat trick to put the nail in the coffin by a score of 7-5.
Mark Byrne stopped 30 of 36 shots in the loss (7-6-2, 5-3-1) while VanNynatten's 32 saves were good for the win (7-8-3, 5-2-3). Keith Rowe's two goals in the losing effort were good enough for the third star. Welch, with two goals and an assist, including the game winner, got the second star. First star honors went to Ehgoetz for his hat trick performance in the win.
After a less than stellar performance in New York, the Chargers will gather themselves in practice this week to prepare for "The Great Face-off on the Great Plains" in Kearney, NE. The Chargers move into the CHA conference tournament as the #1 seed, and will face the winner of #4 Bemidji State v. #5 Findlay Saturday night, March 15 at 7:00 pm. Pre-game will be at 6:30 pm on ESPN 1450-AM and http://www.eyecentric.com. On the other side of the brackets, Niagara clenched the #2 seed, and will face the winner of #3 Wayne State v. #6 Air Force. The championship game will be Sunday night March 16 at 5:00.
Next Series: CHA Tournament, March 15-16
Charger Radio is on the air, after a manner of speaking. Charger Radio will be moving the second half of its UAH men’s ice hockey schedule to WTKI-AM, ESPN 1450, where it will broadcast up to 13 of the remaining 18 regular season contests and all post-season play live for the city of Huntsville.
Not only will this affect listeners in the Huntsville area, but internet listeners will be able to listen to a higher quality audio stream at ESPN 1450’s website, http://www.espn1450.com. All games will still be available live via SportsJuice (http://www.sportsjuice.com/providers/uah), as they were in the first half of the season.
“This move will be beneficial for everyone involved,” said play-by-play announcer Mike Anderson. “We are excited to get the games out to the public in an easier to access format, and we’ve had many fans at home games wanting to listen in the arena, so bring your radio to the game!”
UAH hockey broadcasts on ESPN 1450 will begin on January 3 when UAH takes on Fairfield University from the Von Braun Center. Pre-game starts at 6:30 pm, with a face-off at 7:05.
