Penalties costly in UAH loss to Princeton

Jamie Gilliam, UAH Sports Information

	Salekin

Looking to put together consecutive wins for the first time in 2006-07, the Alabama-Huntsville hockey team fell short dropping a 4-2 decision to visiting Princeton on Friday night at the Von Braun Center.

The Tigers did not take long to get acclimated to their new surroundings in their first-ever trip to the “Rocket City”. A mere 20 seconds into the contest, Princeton's Brett Wilson put home his own rebound for the lead right out of the gate slipping the puck past senior netminder Marc Narduzzi (Vancouver, British Columbia).

UAH squandered an early scoring chance as Princeton killed off 1:44 of 5-on-3 action early in the first. The Chargers finally responded with a power-play tally midway through the opening frame when sophomore winger Josh Murray (Terrace, British Columbia) scored with help from senior Mike Salekin (Castlegar, British Columba) and junior Tyler Hilbert (Okotoks, Alberta) at 11:04 of the period. Power-play opportunities would be limited the rest of the way however as UAH only had the man-advantage one more time in the contest while the Tigers tallied 11 power plays on the night.

Those power-plays would blow the game open for the Tigers in the second period as Princeton's Darrell Powe scored 1:47 into the second to take a 2-1 lead before Brandan Kushniruk stretched it to a two-goal margin less than two-minutes later scoring an extra-attacker goal on a delayed penalty at 3:08. The power-play proved it prowess again before the close of the period as PU's Mark Magnowski made it a 4-1 contest with 48 seconds remaining in the second.

The third period saw the Chargers battle hard trying to make a comeback but five penalties dampened much of the momentum in the period for the home team. Salekin was able to draw the Chargers within a pair of goals at 7:58 of the third with help from senior Grant Selinger (Regina, Saskatchewan) but that is as close as the Blue and White would come. Freshman Tom Train (Hurst, Texas) had the best chance to draw the Chargers within a goal just past the midway point of the final period after he was hauled down from behind by a hook. The Texan was stuffed on the ensuing penalty shot however as Princeton kept it a two-goal contest.

The Tigers outshot the Chargers by a 32-22 margin including a 14-3 advantage on the power play. Narduzzi took the loss in net for the Chargers with a 28-save effort as the Chargers fall to 3-9-1. Meanwhile, Zane Kalemba earned the win for the Tigers as they improve to 3-6-2.

The two squads battle again on Saturday night with a 7:05 p.m drop of the puck.