The Chargers controlled action early, taking the game's first six shots on goal, and frustrating every Maverick rush. It was a Charger penalty, however, that broke it open. With Brett McConnachie (Ajax, Ont.) in the box on a holding penalty it took just 22 seconds before Mick Lawrence moved the puck inside to Brandon Scero, who beat Charger netminder Scott Munroe (Moose Jaw, Sask.) to open the scoring.
Jeremy Schreiber (Medicine Hat, Alb.) found the answer about four minutes later. With Mick Lawrence in the box on a roughing call, Schreiber took a one-time blast at the point from Bruce Mulherin (Red Deer, Alb.) for his second goal of the season, and only the eighth power play goal for the Chargers.
Schreiber found himself in the penalty box late in the first after taking a hooking penalty for dragging Marshall down to prevent a breakaway opportunity. Scero took advantage to get his second goal of the night with under a minute remaining in the period to push it back to a one-goal Maverick advantage at the first break.
The Mavericks pushed it to a two-goal lead on a goal by Bill Thomas, with assists from Bryan Marshall and Scott Parse. The advantage lasted only 38 seconds, though, as Kevin Galerno (Ayr, Ont.) netted his first goal of the season with some hard work out front. Galerno kept position in the slot as the Boys in Blue caused Adam Bartholomay to cough up the puck. Josh Murray (Terrace, B.C.) picked up the puck and fed Galerno, who buried the puck to make it a 3-2 hockey game.
Thomas got his second of the night after a high sticking penalty by Mulherin put the Chargers shorthanded. Tyler Hilbert (Okotoks, Alb.) answered the goal with one of his own, getting a puck past after Jerad Kaufmann was caught out of position for his first goal of the year. Mike Lefley got it back to a two goal lead when he came up on a backdoor cut and buried a Mick Lawrence pass on a practically open net to make it a 5-3 game at the end of two periods.
Thomas completed the hat trick early in the third period to make it a three-goal game. Scott Parse took a neutral zone turnover to notch a short-handed tally to put the lead to four, but it was short lived as Mike Salekin (Castlegar, B.C.) took a pass from Shaun Arvai (West Lorne, Ont.) and blasted a shot to the back of the net to get it back to three just twenty seconds later. David Nimmo (St. Albert, Alb.) tried to get the Chargers back in it, getting a power play measure deflecting an Arvai shot late in the third to cut the lead back to two goals, but a Todd Bentley (Livonia, Mich.) elbowing penalty effectively shut the door on the comeback bid. Tomas Klempa added an empty-net goal for Omaha, and the Chargers fell by a 7-5 final.
Munroe had 36 saves on 43 shots in the loss, while Kaufmann stopped 33 of the Chargers' 38 shots for the win. Thomas' hat trick was the second allowed by the Chargers this season, and the two short-handed goals were the first given up this season. With the loss, UAH falls to .500 on the year at 6-6-1, while UNO improves to 10-8 on the year.
The Chargers will take a travel day Friday and play the Minnestoa State Mavericks Saturday night to complete the "Maverick series" this weekend. The Chargers return home Jan. 6 and 7 to host conference foe Air Force.