Author Archives: Geof F. Morris

UAH 5, UConn 2

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HUNTSVILLE — The homestanding UAH Chargers (1-1-0, 0-0-0 WCHA) rebounded from a tough game on Friday to win going away on Saturday, again potting two first-period goals but equaling that total in the final frame for a 5-2 win over the visiting Connecticut Huskies (1-1-0, 0-0-0 Hockey East).  (Box score)

The Chargers were paced by a blistering night from their top line.  Sophomore forward Brennan Saulnier (Halifax, Nova Scotia) scored two goals and assisted on each of his linemates’ markers, while senior forward Chad Brears (Cold Lake, Alberta) also assisted on his linemates’ goals and sophomore forward Max McHugh (Seattle) assisted on Saulnier’s first tally.  The 4-5—9 mark is the highest for one Charger line since February 25, 2006, when Bruce Mulherin (2002-06, Red Deer, Alb.) went 1-4—5, Brett McConnachie (2003-07, Ajax, Ont.) 3-0—3, and Chris Martini (2003-06, Calgary, Alb.) slacked 1-0—1 to make for a startling five goals and four assists on the night.  Saulnier’s effort is the Chargers’ single-best point effort since Jack Prince’s 2-2—4 game against Michigan Tech on February 8, 2014.

UAH scored five goals just once in 2014-15, a 5-2 win over Lake Superior that was the program’s first Division I home win in nearly four years.  The seven-goal weekend output was the highest at home against a Division I opponent since a 4-2 loss and 5-5 tie against Niagara in 2008-09, and the Chargers are 1-1-0 to start the season for the first time since 2010-11.

It was kinda historic.

The Huskies got an early lead when freshman forward Hans Gorowsky (Lino Lakes, Minn.) hauled down sophomore forward Corey Ronan (Franklin, Mass.) on a breakaway, resulting in a penalty shot that Ronan rang in off of the left post.

The Chargers soon responded.  Brears would knot the game at 1-1 just 67 seconds later off of a feed from sophomore defenseman Richard Buri (Nitra, Slovakia).  Husky freshman defenseman Miles Gendron (Shrewsbury, Mass.) would push the visitors back up 2-1 with his first collegiate goal just 1:55 after that.  Then the Chargers returned the favor :25 later with Saulnier’s first marker of the night (Brears, McHugh).  All four goals were scored in 4:27.

After a period of out-shooting the Huskies 15-10, the Chargers returned more to recent form, suffering a deficit of 12-5 in the middle frame.  McHugh would score on the power play, though, pushing UAH to the lead with just 2:36 left in the 2nd right after senior defenseman Kyle Huson‘s (Parker, Colo.) penalty expired to bring the Huskies back to four defenders.

The Chargers poured it on in the third, adding Saulnier’s second marker from an assist by senior defenseman Frank Misuraca (Clinton Township, Mich.) at 6:10.  Gorowsky added an insurance marker on the penalty kill, taking a feed from junior forward Regan Soquila (Maple Ridge, B.C.), who had intercepted a poor outlet pass into neutral ice.  Soquila nearly ended his goalless streak just a shift later, sending a puck just wide of Husky sophomore goaltender Steve Thulin (North Reading, Mass.).

Junior goaltender Carmine Guerriero (Montréal, Qué.) made 29 saves in the win, moving up to 1-1-0 and raising his save percentage to .908 and lowering his GAA to 3.01.  Thulin, seeing his first collegiate action, made 24 saves.

UAH plays an exhibition next weekend against the University of Alabama’s club team before starting the WCHA season at home the next weekend against Alaska-Anchorage.  The exhibition is at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday the 17th, while the varsity games on the 23rd and 24th drop the puck at 7:07 p.m.

UConn 5, UAH 2

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HUNTSVILLE — The homestanding UAH Chargers (0-1-0, 0-0-0 WCHA) started out fast and faded away at the end, as freshman forward Max Letunov (Moscow) scored a natural hat trick to power the visiting Connecticut Huskies (1-0-0, 0-0-0 Hockey East) to a 5-2 win in front of 2,193 at Propst Arena.  (Box Score)

The Chargers stumbled out of the gate, giving up a first-minute goal when sophomore David Drake (Naperville, Ill.) fished a puck out of a wall scrum and found a wide-open Patrick Kirtland right in the middle of the slot.  The senior captain from Rocky Hill, Conn. took one stride to his left and ripped one past UAH junior goaltender Carmine Guerriero (Montréal, Qué., 30sv).

The boys in white (and lots more blue!) would even the score at 7:16 of the first when sophomore forward Brennan Saulnier (Halifax, Nova Scotia) would pick up a breakout pass in the right-wing circle, make a move, and rifle one past Husky junior goaltender Rob Nichols (Dallas).  The marker perked up the crowd and the team, which was noticeably flat to start.

Sophomore forward Max McHugh (Seattle) and senior forward Chad Brears (Cold Lake, Alberta) picked up where they left off in 2014-15.  Brears rifled a puck from the top of the right-wing circle looking for McHugh’s stick, and the Chargers’ scoring leader from last season tipped the puck high past Nichols to bury it and put the Chargers up 2-1 going into the first intermission.

From there, though, the Chargers faded.  UAH coach Mike Corbett summed it up well, saying, “We ran out of gas a little at the end, and that’s disappointing.  The ice was bad, but that affected both teams.  We turned pucks over, and that killed us — and really, it was just us not being hard on pucks and taking it to them.  That led us to chasing the puck a lot, and that definitely hurt us.”

Chase they did, but they couldn’t quite catch up to Letunov, a highly-regarded prospect drafted in the 2nd round by St. Louis in 2014.  Corbett noted the Chargers’ inability to shut the Huskies’ top scoring line down.  “He’s a good player.  That was the line with him and Naas on there.  Naas is their returning leading scorer, and that’s the line that we wanted to put some guys out there against.  I wouldn’t say that they beat us — they were opportunistic and made their chances.”

The Chargers did not manage a shot on goal in the third period.

UAH will get a chance to rotate in talent on Saturday night that watched from the stands on Friday.  Corbett looks forward to making the changes.  “We want to keep our legs.  The good thing about us is that we’ve got numbers.  We’ve got a guy like (Regan) Soquila and someone like Willie (Adam Wilcox) ready to come in and play.”

The Chargers face the Huskies on Saturday night at 7:07 p.m at Propst Arena.  The first 500 fans receive a Charger trading card set.  The game will be available online for pay-per-view at WCHA.tv.

Why I’m (Irrationally?) Exuberant About the 2015-16 UAH Chargers

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This isn’t your typical season preview — that will have to wait until I have time to go through 2-3 hours of tape from interviews of Mike Corbett, Gavin Morgan, Brent Fletcher, Chad Brears, Frank Misuraca, Max McHugh, and Carmine Guerriero.  [Sorry, I’m certifying to be an ISS Flight Controller, and, oh, I got married on the 20th.]

But what this little missive will be is a treatise on why I’m bullish on the 2015-16 Chargers.

Leadership

When you’re starting from scratch, your most important leaders are your coaches.  Corbett had a great assistant in this regard in Morgan, who’s been with UAH since Chris Luongo’s first season.  But Corbett also has his own way of doing things, and so he and Morgee (and Matty Thomas) were really the leaders of that first team and somewhat the second.

Now the Chargers have leaders of their own wearing sweaters and pants and skates and buckets.  Junior forward Brent Fletcher (New Westminster, British Columbia) is the captain this year.  I remember talking to Corbs after an embarrassing 6-1 loss to Bemidji to start the 13-14 campaign, looking for positives.  He responded, “Well, there’s Fletcher.  That guy can … play for me anytime, anywhere, no matter the score.”  I filed that away.

Fletch isn’t a finesse guy.  He was 1/3 of last season’s Bulldog Line (miss you, Reider and Pierce), a unit that harassed opposing top lines and kept them mostly in check.  He’s also a guy in the tradition of latter-day UAH captains: from Scott Kalinchuk forward to Ryan Burkholder, Curtis deBruyn, and Doug Reid, our leadership has started with two-year guys who focused on the defensive side of things.  In this way, Fletcher will set the tone.

Senior defenseman Frank Misuraca (Clinton Township, Mich.) does all the little things, knows who he is as a player, and generally stays within himself.  Yeah, he gets timely goals, but that’s not his only thing.  And senior forward Chad Brears (Cold Lake, Alb.) started to come into his own offensively, going 3-12—15 while mostly playing on McHugh’s right wing and at the point on the power play.  While Brears did halve his goal mark from the previous year, his junior career may prove illustrative given his final year with Merritt in the BCHL.

Depth

The Chargers only dressed 13 forwards in 14-15.  Both senior defenseman Anderson White (Caledon, Ont.) and junior defenseman Brandon Carlson (Huntington Beach, Calif.) got time at left wing last year, using good speed and big bodies to spice things up when needed.  Depth at forward was a problem due to eligibility issues and injury, and using the big defensemen up front stretched the depth on the back line, too.

Depth should not be a problem in 15-16.  The Chargers field 16 forwards, nine defensemen, and three goaltenders this year.  Players won’t be able to cheat on a game, knowing that they’ll be in the lineup the next night regardless.  We won’t take our third goaltender on a few road trips because we’re so thin that it just makes sense to have the insurance in net and reward a guy who busts his ass in practice.  When it comes down to it, there will be seven guys in the stand at every UAH home game, and when the team hits the road, five guys will be left watching the games on the Internet and doing their homework in peace and quiet.

Honestly, given the depth issues from last year, it’s a wonder that the team won 300% more games than the previous season.

Carmine Guerriero

Look, there’s not much left to write about CG35.  There’s the Tech game, the Mankato game, and CHN making him their preseason 2nd team All-America.  I interviewed the junior from Montréal, and if anything, his intensity level is up.  He knows who he is.  He knows that people knock him because he’s 5’10” and not 6’4″.  He knows that people may think that his stats are inflated because he’s played on weak offensive teams that play a lot in their end.  I don’t think that he cares too much about any of that, other than to use it as motivation.  He is relentless, he is fearless, and he’s already thinking about the next save.

Improved scoring

Look, there’s still relatively few places to go offensively in 15-16 but up.  UAH was 57th in college hockey in scoring last year, potting a paltry 1.63 G/GM.  They gave up 3.18 G/GM, but those stats are a bit distorted by allowing 16 of their 121 goals in a weekend that we’d all like to forget (but that Corbs will make sure that we remember) at Tech.  If the boys can get the puck out of their own end, not only will they have more chances to score, but they’ll make Guerriero’s job easier, and fewer SOG at him should lead to fewer goals.  Take that weekend out for UAH, and they gave up 2.94 G/GM, which is still in the bottom third in college hockey but is something to build upon.

Sophomore forward McHugh (Seattle) was everything that we’d hoped that he would be as a freshman, becoming the team’s first 20-point scorer since Matt Baxter (Courtice, Ont.) in 2009-10 and first 10+ goal scorer since Matt Sweazey (Toronto) in 2008-09.  He’ll anchor a top line with (presumably) Brears and whoever has a good scoring touch combined with some speed on the left wing.  That might be freshman forward Jetlan Houcher (Paradise Valley, Alb.), who scorched the AJHL for the last two seasons with point-a-game totals and a combined 70 goals, or it could be freshman forward Tyler Poulsen (Arvada, Colo.), who sat out last season but was 29-32—61 in 56 GP with Topeka in the NAHL in 13-14.

The second line may be a bit of a work in progress.  Will sophomore forward Brennan Saulnier (Halifax, Nova Scotia) corral his talent and spend more time using his mitts than his hits?  Can senior forward Jack Prince (London) overcome slow feet to stay on a second line and use his heavy shot to create chances?  Will sophomore forward Josh Kestner (Huntsville) take all the lessons learned about playing in D-I — a huge jump up from the GOJHL in Junior B — and find his scoring touch?  Will any of the other freshmen wrest away ice time?

I feel like a third line is a pretty easy pick, with Fletcher being joined by freshman Adam Wilcox (Alpharetta, Ga.) as the required Atlanta-area checking forward.  That could be rounded out by junior Cody Marooney (Eden Prairie, Minn.) or another freshman, perhaps big-bodied Hunter Anderson (Savage, Minn.).  I’ve got some ideas as to what to name this third line.  We’ll see.

If UAH can get two or three 10-goal scorers, they’ll be back to 2006-07 levels, and Guerriero is better than the goaltending array from that season.

I picked UAH fourth in the preseason media poll, and that wasn’t me being flippant.

Go Chargers.

The passing of Colby Ross.

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It is with deep sadness that we must pass along the news that Colby Ross has died.  Colby was the third of the four Ross children.  Our hearts are with his father, Doug, his mother, Barbara Ebert, his sister Lindsay, his brother Jared, and his brother Garrett.  It is impossible to overstate the role that the Ross family has played in hockey in Huntsville, and it’s similarly impossible to overstate the sense of loss for his family.

UAH alumni Todd and Kellie Bentley have put together a GoFundMe project to create a college fund for Colby’s daughter, Darby.  We encourage you to consider donating.

 

Adam Setas did not play hockey at UAH.

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From heavy.com’s 5 Fast Facts about Adam Setas, Nick Saban’s new son-in-law:

Setas played hockey throughout his childhood and at Lansing Catholic High School before committing to play at UA Huntsville in 2009. From 2009-2012 Setas play for UA Huntsville before transferring to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa for his senior year. UA Tuscaloosa does not have a varsity hockey team.

Except if you look at that EliteProspects link, you see him playing at UA in ACHA III and not UAH in NCAA Div-I:

Adam Setas at EliteProspects.com

Adam Setas at EliteProspects.com

Oh, and if you look at the all-time roster for UAH hockey, there is no “Adam Setas” between Paul Scott (’90, 10-23—33) and Grant Selinger (’07, 33-37—70).

Congratulations and best wishes to the Setas and Saban families.

Michigan Tech 3, UAH 0 — An Elegy

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A light exists in Spring
Not present on the year
At any other period—
When March is scarcely here

A color stands abroad
On solitary fields
That science cannot overtake
But human nature feels.

It waits upon the lawn,
It shows the furthest tree
Upon the furthest slope we know;
It almost speaks to me.

Then, as horizons step,
Or noons report away,
Without the formula of sound,
It passes, and we stay:

A quality of loss
Affecting our content,
As trade had suddenly encroached
Upon a sacrament.

— Emily Dickinson, “A light exists in spring”

I won’t presume to speak for Michael, but come for the past four seasons, we’d hit the first weekend in February and I’d just kind of be done with the season.  In those four years, UAH won just nine Division I games.  If you remove those four seasons from consideration, the worst four-year stretch for the Chargers in Division I comes in the team’s first four years at 45.  If you limit it to modern D-I, it’s 36, but five of those 36 wins make possible both of UAH’s NCAA tournament appearances.

I don’t think that anyone reading these words needs much of a reminder, but UAH went 2-35-1 last year, setting an NCAA record for most losses in a Division I season.  That record is likely to stand until the NCAA again increases the number of games to be played, because UAH used Alaska exemptions to add four games to their schedule.  But if you’ll remember, that team never quit, even though you’d have understood if they had.  They won their second game in their 35th contest of the season.

This team certainly never quit, too.  Did they give up 77 shots on goal last night to Tech in an amazing, epic game?  They sure did.  If you had told me at noon on Friday that UAH wouldn’t score a goal all weekend, I would’ve believed you.  The Chargers scored one goal in their last trip to Houghton.  And if you’d told me that the Huskies wouldn’t score more than one goal in a period, I’d have thought that the Chargers had a shot at winning one of those games.  But if you’d told me that sophomore goaltender Carmine Guerriero (Montréal, Qué.) would have to make 118 saves on the weekend, well … that wouldn’t sound like UAH was in those games.

That happened.

It’s playoff hockey, and strange things can happen, but it’s safe to say that the Chargers are huge underdogs in this series. UAH is the seventh seed, and Michigan Tech is the second seed.

…

All-time series: The Chargers are 0-6 all-time against the Huskies, and are 0-4 in Houghton. UAH was blown out in both games there in late January this season by scores of 5-0 and 11-1. In 2013-14, the Chargers lost 4-1 and 10-4 at Houghton. That’s a combined score of 30-6 for the Huskies on their home ice.

Coach Corbett famously went around town writing 16-1 the week after the Tech debacle.

We had no idea how new it would be.

UAH had a harder time tonight, taking seven minor penalties after just nine the night before in twice the time.  (Freshman forward Brennan Saulnier‘s [Halifax, Nova Scotia] major penalty and game misconduct count as two separate penalties.  Saulnier’s third game misconduct of the season resulted in a one-game suspension from the NCAA.)  Where the Chargers were perfect on the PK on Friday night — which seems obvious — they were human on Saturday, allowing two power play goals that proved to be the difference in the game.

The troika of senior forward Blake Hietala (Houghton, Mich.), senior forward, co-captain, and WCHA player of the year Tanner Kero (Hancock, Mich.), and sophomore forward Tyler Heinonen (Delano, Minn.) combined for both power play markers.  Hietala pleased the home fans in his final game, scoring the game-winning goal, his fifth of the year at 14:35 of the first.  The Huskies struck again 4:43 into the second, with Kero also going out in style with his 19th geno.

The only time that Guerriero (42 saves) looked moderately human was on freshman defenseman Mark Auk‘s (St. Clair Shores, Mich.) goal, a point shot that fluttered through traffic but that Garrison Guerriero had been flinging into the corner all weekend.

The Chargers were nearly even in SOG in the second (11-12), all the more impressive for the Huskies having 1:14 of power play time.  And when Kero took a high-sticking penalty just :04 into the third period, you thought that the boys in blue might have had a shot.  But junior netminder Jamie Phillips (Caledonia, Ont., which we all know is a decent hockey town) picked up his second shutout of the weekend and sixth of the season, a result that you’d expect from the goaltender for the WCHA first team.

Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.

But is there for the night a resting-place?
A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.
May not the darkness hide it from my face?
You cannot miss that inn.

Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?
Those who have gone before.
Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?
They will not keep you standing at that door.

Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
Of labour you shall find the sum.
Will there be beds for me and all who seek?
Yea, beds for all who come.

— Christina Rossetti, “Uphill”

“Of labor you shall find the sum.”  That’s very true of this team.  It’s important to remember that the Chargers quadrupled their win total in 2014-15.  Adding more than five wins is very difficult in college hockey.  If you think that UAH can add five more wins next year, that’s a good run at home ice.  Don’t you think that’s doable?  If you watched this weekend’s games and can forget the final six of the regular season, you can see that it’s there.  The defensive core is there, and they’re starting to make the good moves coming out of the zone.  The freshmen forwards show all the signs.

Every time I run into a player alumnus, we talk about the players on the team and how the talent level is rising.  They cannot stop talking about the freshmen, specifically guys like forwards Saulnier, Josh Kestner (Huntsville), and Max McHugh (Seattle, Wash.).  The freshmen tallied 61 points this season; UAH scored just 41 goals last year with 72 assists for 113 points.

Let’s talk about Guerriero for just a second.  Last year he was 1-17-0, 3.90, and .905.  This year, he’s 8-18-3, 2.56, and .928.  That .928 is the second-best in the Chargers’ Division I era, second behind Scott Munroe’s (2006, Moose Jaw, Sask.) .930 mark in 2004-05 and ahead of Cam Talbot (2010, Caledonia, Ont.)’s .925 in 2009-10; the mark is fourth all-time for UAH.  His .9184 career mark is .0001 behind Munroe and .0092 ahead of Talbot.

From a numbers perspective, Guerriero is on par with Talbot’s career progression from the big man’s sophomore to junior seasons — but he never had a rough freshman year like Talbot did (1-10-0, 4.63, .860).  Talbot’s record in 2008-09 was 2-16-3, and his final year was 12-18-3.

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

— Langston Hughes, “Dreams”

For the last two years, it’s been about hanging on; next year, it’s going to be going forward.  I truly believe that this team can get home ice in 2016.  That took 29 points this year and 30 the year before; we had five last year and 15 this year.  Bemidji State went from last-in last year to home ice this year.  Four of the final six games were winnable — that would get UAH to 23.

Last year, UAH was outscored 166-41 (-3.29 G/GM); this year, 121-62 (-1.55 G/GM).  Last year, UAH lost by three or more goals 25 times; this year, just 12.

Hold fast to dreams / For when dreams go / Life is a barren field / Frozen with snow.

Dream big.  The worst appears to be behind us.  It took Danton Cole three years to get to double-digits in wins; it’s fairly certain that Mike Corbett will get there, too.

Bowling Green 2, UAH 1

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This is the way the season ends: not with a bang, but with a whimper.

UAH did enough in their win and tie in the Soo to make the WCHA postseason; with those three points, UAH avoided nail-biting late into the night to see if Alaska-Anchorage could pick up points at home against Alaska.  Otherwise, February and March have been a disaster for the Chargers, who end the regular season with six losses.

UAH coach Mike Corbett shook things up on Saturday night, starting his fourth line and sophomore goaltender Matt Larose (Nanaimo, B.C.).  It generally helped, as the Chargers clamped down the opposition’s ability to put shots on goal, allowing just 28 overall.

Larose glove save

Matt Larose makes a glove save while UAH’s Brent Fletcher and BG’s Ted Pletch look on. (Photo by Todd Pavlack/BSGUHockey.com)

The defensive effort, combined with excellent play from Larose, limited the Falcons to just two goals on the night, one of which was on the power play.  Unfortunately for UAH, their offense was pedestrian, and the Falcons won 2-1.

BG junior forward Mark Cooper (Toronto) kicked off scoring early in the first with a point shot that slid past Larose (26sv), who was screened — and it looked like the puck went in off of a Charger defenseman’s leg.

Sophomore defenseman Brandon Carlson (Huntington, Beach, Calif.) knotted the game at one just 2:41 later with — you guessed it — a point shot through a screen.  Freshman defenseman Brandon Parker (Faribault, Minn.) and freshman forward Brennan Saulnier (Halifax, Nova Scotia) picked up the assists.

The Falcons’ game-winning goal came late in the first period when freshman forward Mitchell McLain (Baxter, Minn.) returned to the power play with a fresh stick, found the puck, and ripped one past everyone.

Neither team did much for the final two periods; BG outshot UAH 15-11, and there were just three penalties (two on UAH) in the final two stanzas.

 

Cody Marooney

Cody Marooney gets tangled with a Falcon. (Photo by Todd Pavlack/BGSUHockey.com)

A loss by Lake Superior against Ferris State makes the Chargers the 7th seed, as UAH was 2-1-1 v. the Lakers in 2014-15.  UAH will face No. 2 seed Michigan Tech in a best-of-3 WCHA quarterfinal series starting Friday night at 6 p.m. CDT. We’ll have more on that for you later this week.

But despite the disappointing finish, UAH is in the postseason, and not just because Alaska was ineligible.  After a two-win season, UAH has seven conference wins and eight overall.  January’s four home wins show that significant progress has been made.

Now the boys get to try and be world beaters.

Note: Updated with UAH’s opponent in the WCHA quarterfinals. – Michael Napier

The Chargers’ Playoff Chances in Four Tweets

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In short: UAH could have realistically finished higher than 7th with any points against Ferris this weekend, especially with a sweep that would have put the Chargers in 6th and, with 19 points in hand, a glimmer of a shot at home ice.  Instead, Ferris and Northern swept, providing significant separation between 6th and 7th and keeping the Falcons out of a run for the McNaughton.

Lastly:

If and only if there’s not a situation where UAH, LSSU, and UAA are all tied.  If, say, UAA goes 4-0-0, UAH goes 1-2-1, and LSSU goes 2-1-1, all three teams would have 18 points, with all teams at 8-18-2.

A tiebreaker is invalid, as the only four-game series amongst the three is UAH-LSSU.

B tiebreaker is invalid, as all teams have eight conference wins.

C tiebreaker: UAH would be 1.000 against UAA and .625 against LSSU.  LSSU and UAA split their season series.  That pulls UAH out of the tiebreaker and into 7th (great question, Neil!  I hadn’t thought about it).

D tiebreaker: With UAA and LSSU still tied up, you go to winning percentage down the table.

UAA hasn’t played BG yet (and will this weekend in Anchorage), and the Seawolves were swept by MTU and MSU.  LSSU went 1-2-1 against BG.  In this scenario, Anchorage wins because they’d be 2-0-0 against the Falcons and would win the third comparison.  In the unlikely sequence where the Falcons lose out and the Beavers win out, LSSU would win the third comparison, having swept Bemidji while UAA went winless.

What if LSSU passes the Chargers?  Well, at that point, UAH and UAA are battling it out, and UAH wins the C tiebreaker if the teams end up tied at 8-18-2.  If UAH did something crazy like end up at 7-17-4, UAA would win.

Isn’t this fun?

Ferris State 2, UAH 1

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It was a wintry night in Huntsville, with many roads closed after a crusting of ice fell atop already snowy lanes.  It was great hockey weather, but for the home fans, it wasn’t a great hockey result.  The visiting Ferris State Bulldogs (13-18-1, 10-13-0 WCHA) scored two quick first-period goals and held on thereafter, winning 2-1 over the homestanding UAH Chargers (8-19-4, 7-15-1 WCHA).

Both Bulldog goals came on poor defensive zone passes.  At 4:33 of the first, senior forward Dominic Panetta (Baldwin, Mich.) picked a puck off and skated in alone on UAH sophomore netminder Carmine Guerriero (Montréal, Qué.), potting a shorthanded goal.  Sophomore forward Chad McDonald (Battle Creek, Mich.) took a pass from freshman forward Tyler Andrew (Bethel Park, Pa.), who had just intercepted a puck in front of the UAH bench.

I expect that it’s no surprise that Michael and I have a backchannel during games.  Post-game, he commented, “Lost it in the first, didn’t win it in the 2nd and 3rd.”  He’s right.

The second period is notable only for its penalties.  An early UAH power play was nullified four seconds later by a holding minor.  Two penalties :07 apart by sophomore forward Cody Marooney (Eden Prairie, Minn.) and freshman defenseman Richard Buri (Nitra, Slovakia) left UAH killing a long 5×3 situation, which they did fairly easily, allowing just three shots-on-goal on the disadvantage.  UAH is still the #1 team in combined special teams.

A carry-over penalty from the 2nd period gave the Chargers 1:55 of a man advantage on clean ice.  The home squad would score, as freshman defenseman Cody Champagne (Brookfield, Conn.) took a feed from senior forward Alex Carpenter (Portage, Mich.) for a point shot that appeared to rattle around on bodies in front before going to the roof of the net past Ferris State senior goaltender CJ Motte (St. Clair, Mich.).  Sophomore defenseman Brandon Carlson (Huntington, Beach, Calif.) got the secondary assist.

Ferris State stymied UAH for the remainder of regulation time.  UAH pulled Guerriero (32 sv, 8-12-3) with 1:37 remaining, but the Bulldogs kept UAH to the outside and blocked shots.  Motte (18 sv) moves to 13-18-1 on the season.

The two teams face off again on Saturday night to conclude the season series, which the Bulldogs lead 2-1-0.

UAH 3, NMU 2

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While UAH realizes that its best offense comes from point shots that get tipped or have rebounds hoovered up into dirty goals, all of its goals this weekend were one-shot goals.  Junior defenseman Frank Misuraca (Clinton Township, Mich.) picked up his second goal of the weekend, and junior forward Chad Brears (Cold Lake, Alberta) and freshman defenseman Richard Buri (Nitra, Slovakia) also fired pucks in from 50+ feet away, powering UAH to a 3-2 win over WCHA rival Northern Michigan.

The sweep — the Chargers’ second consecutive home sweep, one that pushed them to five wins in their last seven home contests — pushed the Chargers to 7-16-3 (6-12-0 WCHA) on the season and kept them ensconced in position to pick up the 7th seed in the 2015 WCHA playoffs.  The loss dropped the Wildcats to 9-8-5 (6-8-4 WCHA) and left them deadlocked in fourth place in the standings with Ferris State, who was swept by Mankato.  The Wildcats and Bulldogs are three points clear of Bemidji State (also swept) in 6th and just four ahead of those pesky Chargers.  (Now how much did that sweep in Bemidji hurt?)

Misuraca started the scoring early for the home squad, taking a pass back to the point from freshman forward Brennan Saulnier (Halifax, Nova Scotia).  “That was the same [kind of goal] as Bowling Green last year,” senior forward and team captain Doug Reid (Innisfil, Ont.) said of Misuraca’s goal.  The marker was Misuraca’s sixth of the season, which leads all UAH defensemen in goal scoring and puts him second on the team.

Sophomore defenseman Barrett Kaib (Pittsburgh, Pa.) picked up the equalizing goal, his second on the season.  Sophomore forward Casey Purpur (Grand Forks, N.D.) picked up his first point on the season with the assist.

Northern Michigan’s effort to level the game were successful for only 3:28.  A cross-checking minor by sophomore defenseman Brock Maschmeyer (Bruederheim, Alb.) at 14:26 followed by a roughing minor by sophomore forward Dominik Shine (Pinckney, Mich.) at 15:03 gave the Chargers a long two-man advantage.

While UAH couldn’t score with two extra men on a four-corners style attack designed to open space and draw defenders below the goal line and away from the powerful point shots that the Chargers love, the puck did get to the right place five seconds after Maschmeyer returned to the ice:

Brears ripped one from a few feet inside the blue line and pretty much straight down the middle, and apparently Wildcat junior goaltender Mathias Dahlström (Smedjebacken, Sweden) never saw it.  Brears’s 3rd gino of the season was assisted by freshman defenseman Brandon Parker (Faribault, Minn.) [10th] and senior forward Jeff Vanderlugt (Richmond Hill, Ont.) [6th].

Parker’s assist has him leading the team and ties him for first in overall defenseman points with Misuraca.  No Charger has had double-digits in assists since 2010-11, when five Chargers did so (Matt Baxter [13], Justin Cseter [12], Jamie Easton [12], Keenan Desmet [10], Tom Durnie [10]).  If you’re really curious, the last Chargers to get 15 were Andrew Coburn (15 in 09-10). Brandon Roshko (15 in 08-09, 17 in 07-08).  The last 20-assist Chargers were David Nimmo (22) and Shaun Arvai (20) in 2006-07.

The second period was fairly slow, with just 13 shots on goal (8 UAH, 5 NMU).  However, there was a penalty shot, as sophomore forward Matt Salhany (Warwick, R.I.) was slowed up on a breakaway attempt.  He did not convert the opportunity.  In the modern era, the Chargers have been awarded five penalty shots and have converted twice: Kevin Morrison on Oct. 8, 2006 at Air Force and Dwayne Blais at home against Iona on Nov. 4, 2000.  The last Charger to attempt a penalty shot was Cseter at Omaha on January 28, 2011.

[The Chargers have caused five penalty shots in the same time frame, allowing two goals.  Mark Byrne stopped his, and Blake McNicol and Cam Talbot were each 1/2.]

But there would be some excitement for the Wildcat faithful in the lower bowl late in the period.

Junior forward Darren Nowick‘s (Long Beach, Calif.) goal was his sixth of the season, and the assist was freshman forward Zach Diamantoni‘s (Boca Raton, Fla.) fourth.  Maschmeyer (5th) got the secondary assist.

“That’s what we work on a lot in practice,” Reid said.  “That one, he had an open shot at the net, and he just hammered it.  He’s a big boy, and he put a lot behind it.  It was a nice shot!”  Straight off the draw, freshman forward Max McHugh (Seattle, Wash.) pulled it back to Buri, a hulking force standing a few feet inside the blue line.  With everyone collapsed to the circle, Buri had a clean look at the glove side of the net and let fly.

From there, the Chargers just held on, with Dahlström out for the final 1:34 of the game.  The Chargers iced it several times in that setting, and Reid was pushed too wide to put one in the empty net.  But this team knows how to hold on now, and it’s not just four consecutive home wins: it’s four consecutive home wins with the other team’s net empty at the end of the game: 1:34 last night, 1:09 the night before, 1:18 on Jan. 3rd (6×4 for :27), and 2:10 on Jan. 4th (6×4 for :45).

The win pushed the 2015 senior class — Reid, Vanderlugt, forward and assistant captain Craig Pierce (Roswell, Ga.), defenseman Graeme Strukoff (Chilliwack, B.C.), and defenseman Ben Reinhardt — to seven Division I wins in their final season, two more than their first three seasons combined.  “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” said Pierce, who played in his 100th game as a Charger on Saturday night.  “We’ve been real good at home in 2015 at home.  We didn’t like how we played last weekend at Bemidji, so we’re happy to come back here and get four points in the WCHA.”

The Chargers are off of NCAA play next weekend as they host the US National Team Development Program’s Under-18 team in 2:00 p.m. Central contests on Saturday and Sunday.  UAH will then travel to Houghton, Mich. to face Michigan Tech before a weekend off and their third and final trip to the UP of the year to face Lake Superior in the Soo.  That matchup could be key in determining which WCHA squad gets an early tee time in March.  More on the probabilities of teams making the WCHA playoffs coming this week on wchaplayoffs.com.