The original UAH club hockey program established a Huntsville tradition of winning in the early 1980s. On Friday, the new program takes a significant step toward bringing that back.

Friday is when the Chargers take on Central Florida to open the Division 2 schedule of the AAU College Hockey national championships at West Chester, Pa.

“The opportunity that making Nationals gives us is huge,” UAH head coach Tim Flynn said. “It legitimizes our program. For those out there kind of looking at the College Hockey South hierarchy, especially in our foot print, I think this helps show that we belong in the discussion of top teams and options for future players. Playing on a stage like this, we’re hopeful from a recruiting standpoint that people take notice.”

It’ll start early, though. Opening faceoff is 9:15 a.m. local time, 8:15 a.m. in Huntsville.

“The guys are ready to get up there and get started,” Flynn said. “Kind of a tough draw playing at 9:15 a.m. (EST), but that’s part of the fun. We’ll just have to hit the ground running. Everyone’s kind of in the same boat when it comes to that side of things.”

“We saw UCF at the CHS playoffs. They’re a good team that’s going to be tough to play against. We’ll have to limit mistakes, and stay disciplined.”

UAH (10-10-1) did not play UCF (16-9-3) in the CHS regular season or playoffs. The Knights finished sixth in the conference tournament.

Friday’s the first of three straight days of games in Pool C. The Chargers play High Point at 11:15 a.m. CST on Saturday, and then Farmingdale State at 1:15 p.m. CDT on Sunday. All games in the AAU College Hockey national championships will be streamed for free on Black Dog Hockey.

High Point, the ACCHL champion, is the third overall seed in the tournament and have an overall record of 23-5-0. Farmingdale State is 20-11-1 and have AAU D2’s leading scorer in Brendan Dixson.

“High Point looks like they can put up points against anyone,” Flynn said. “Some very impressive offensive totals on that team, and as the top seed in the pool, they’re coming in as the team to beat. Farmingdale State is not your standard 18 seed as they come into the tournament with 20 wins and their leading scorer having 85 points, so they’ll present another set of challenges we’ll have to navigate.”

The winners of the five pools and three wild cards will qualify for the Division 2 quarterfinals, which take place Monday. The semifinals are on Tuesday and the championship on Wednesday, meaning its will take winning six games in six days to take the title.

The last club hockey tournament a UAH team participated in was in 1985, the season before the program went varsity and eventually joined the NCAA. Those Chargers lost in the national championship game, just falling short of winning their fourth straight U.S. National Club title.

Flynn says playing in this tournament is big for this UAH club program, which had seen many bumps and bruises since starting up in 2018.

“This just goes to show what UAH club hockey has been and can be. We have 13 kids on this team who came up through the Huntsville youth hockey programs (North Alabama Hockey Association and Total Package Hockey). Getting here validates all the coaching they’ve received in town over the years, and shows that you can play locally and be able to compete for championships at the college level. As a group, we’ve talked about the tradition and expectations for the UAH hockey program, regardless of level, has always been winning championships. It’s on us to keep that alive.”

Keaton Watts, Crawford named All-Stars: Keaton Watts and Cameron Crawford have been selected to represent UAH and College Hockey South at the AAU College Hockey in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. from April 12-14.

The event features top players from all three of AAU’s men’s divisions as a celebration of AAU College Hockey’s fifth anniversary. Each member conference is fielding an all-star team for a competitive showcase.

Watts is the Chargers’ leading scorer with 20 goals and 20 assists for 40 points in 19 games. He will be on Team White representing CHS. Watts also named the conference’s top Division 2 star for February with seven goals and 11 points in five games.

Crawford will be on CHS’ Team Gray after a breakout season in goal. He has a 3.74 goals against and a .910 save percentage this season.

A season goal for the UAH club hockey team has been achieved. Now it’s time for a new goal: Winning a championship.

The Chargers are in the College Hockey South Division 2 playoffs this weekend at the Huntsville Ice Sports Center. They’ll take on the Tennessee Ice Vols on Friday night at 9:30 p.m. in a quarterfinal matchup.

Playing at home is a big deal for UAH.

“We’re very excited for the opportunity to play for a championship this weekend, and to be able to do it in Huntsville makes it even more special,” UAH head coach Tim Flynn said. “Our goal from the beginning of the season was to get here, and the guys have worked extremely hard to be in this position so I’m very proud of them. It should be a pretty fun experience for the whole team, but especially the local players and we have a lot of talented players from Huntsville. To get to play in front of friends, family, their former coaches and teammates I think is something they’re all excited about.

“A big thank you to the Huntsville Sports Commission for putting this event on, and the people at College Hockey South for hosting these types of tournaments in Huntsville, and obviously the Huntsville Ice Sports Center for all their hospitality and coordination.”

The Chargers may be the No. 7 seed against the No. 2 seed Vols, but they have shown they can pull off the technical upset. The teams split their season series in two close battles, with UAH winning 4-3 in overtime in Huntsville in September and Tennessee winning 5-3 in Knoxville in November.

“We’ve played them twice this year, which can be a good and a bad thing,” Flynn said. “We know a little about them and they know a little about us. It is playoff hockey so I expect the intensity to ramp up a bit. We need to get back to playing on our toes, dictating the pace and tempo and having a little more urgency than we’ve had the last three weeks. Every mistake is amplified this time of year.”

UAH’s spring semester has been up and down, going 3-3 in its last six games, all on the road. The Chargers are coming off a series split against Ole Miss.

Keaton Watts had four points against Ole Miss to take the Chargers’ lead in scoring with 35 points (16 goals, 19 assists). His brother Kolton is two points behind, and Henry Hoff is heating up after a five-point night in UAH’s victory last Friday.

Cameron Crawford had a busy series in goal last weekend, making 107 saves in two games against the Rebels. He sports a season save percentage of .909 to go with a 3.57 goals against average.

More from 256 Today: Blast from the past: UAH to face Vols in College Hockey South playoffs

College Hockey South Division 2 Playoffs

Eight teams are in the tournament, the top four from the North Division and the top four from the South Division. Florida Atlantic, the top-ranked team in AAU College Hockey Division 2, and Tennessee are the top seeds by way of winning the South and North divisions, respectively. The other six teams were seeded in order of their placement in the latest AAU D2 MyHockey rankings.

Tickets

Tickets can be purchased for a whole day’s games ($15) or a weekend pass ($30) either at the Ice Sports Center or online.

Streaming

All games will be broadcast on the College Hockey South YouTube channel.

Schedule

Friday – Quarterfinals
No. 3 Florida vs. No. 6 Clemson, Rink 1, 6 p.m.
No. 4 Central Florida vs. No. 5 Tampa, Rink 2, 7 p.m.
No. 1 Florida Atlantic vs. No. 8 Vanderbilt, Rink 1, 8:30 p.m.
No. 2 Tennessee vs. No. 7 UAH, Rink 2, 9:30 p.m.

The teams will be reseeded for the semifinals, with the lowest remaining seed matched against the highest remaining seed.

Saturday – All games on Rink 1.
7th Place Game: Lowest seeded Friday loser vs. second lowest seeded Friday loser, 11 a.m.
5th Place Game: Highest seeded Friday loser vs. second-highest seeded Friday loser, 1:30 p.m.
Semfinal 1: 4 p.m.
Semfinal 2: 6:30 p.m.

Sunday – All games on Rink 1.
3rd Place Game: Semifinal losers, 10 a.m.
Championship Game: Semifinal winners, 12:30 p.m.

Pictured: UAH’s Kolton Watts battles Tennessee’s Kenneth Richter for the puck at the Huntsville Ice Sports Center on Sept. 22. Photo by Todd Thompson/RiverCat Photography.

UAH (8-8-1 overall, 6-4-0 CHS) at Georgia Tech (4-16-1, 2-7-1)
Where: Atlanta IceForum
When: Friday, 7:30 p.m. CT; Saturday, 7:30 p.m. CT
Watch: TBD

The UAH club hockey team finishes the regular season this weekend at Georgia Tech with a spot in the College Hockey South Division 2 playoffs in sight.

One point (tie or overtime loss) against the Yellow Jackets will put the Chargers into the tournament, which will be held at the Huntsville Ice Sports Center on Feb. 16-18.

UAH is in third place with 12 points in the CHS Division 2 North, where the top four teams qualify. Fourth-place Clemson (11 points) and fifth-place Middle Tennessee (nine points) happen to face each other in a series this weekend: A Clemson victory would clinch playoff berths for both the Tigers and UAH.

UAH holds the tiebreaker over Middle Tennessee by virtue of the Chargers’ sweep over the Blue Raiders in September. UAH and Clemson split their series in October.

STATS: UAH | GEORGIA TECH

The Chargers spent last weekend at Ole Miss with mixed results, winning 4-1 and losing 6-1.

“Very happy to get two points on Friday at Ole Miss,” UAH head coach Tim Flynn said. “They gave us everything we expected. We were able to pull away in the third period and get a big win.

“Saturday was a bit of a different story. I think there are a lot of frustrations about the outcome, but the biggest thing is we just decided to take a night off in a game where we could have clinched a playoff spot. We’ve talked through what needs to change, and where our minds need to be to be successful. Full credit to Ole Miss, that’s behind us now and our focus in on getting points this weekend against Georgia Tech.”

The Yellow Jackets are in last place coming into this series and are eliminated from CHS playoff contention. Their last action was a couple of one-goal losses at Embry-Riddle in Florida. This series will be Georgia Tech’s final games of the season.

“We’ve had a good week of practice; the guys are excited for the opportunity this weekend and know what’s in front of us,” Flynn said. “Georgia Tech is similar to Ole Miss in that their record doesn’t quite indicate what they’re capable of. They’ve added some players in the second half and have been playing some good hockey the last few weeks. It’s going to take a team effort to get the results we want and continue our season.”

The UAH club hockey team wants to turn things around to end the fall semester in this weekend’s Veterans Cup at the Huntsville Ice Sports Center, hosted by College Hockey South and the Huntsville Sports Commission.

“We’re excited to be a part of the Veteran’s Cup this year,” UAH head coach Tim Flynn said. “A big thank you to the North Alabama Hockey Association (NAHA) for sponsoring the special jerseys we’ll be wearing this weekend. We also want to give a big thank you to the Huntsville Sports Commission for bringing this event to town, and the Huntsville Ice Sports Center for being a great partner with the league and hosting multiple College Hockey South events throughout the season. This will be the first time since I’ve been here that we get to compete for a trophy; that’s not something to take lightly.”

The Chargers will join three familar AAU/CHS teams in the two-day event: D1 Alabama and Auburn along with D2 club Middle Tennessee. UAH has played all three this season, going a combined 3-2-1.

In this Friday’s semifinals, Auburn (8-3-1) faces Middle Tennessee (5-5-2) at 6 p.m. before UAH (5-5-1) plays Alabama (8-5-0) at 8:30 p.m. The third-place game is Saturday at 4 p.m. and the championship is at 6:30 p.m. Tickets can be ordered online or purchased at the door. The tournament will be streamed on College Hockey South’s YouTube channel.

UAH has lost three straight games, dropping a 4-1 decision at Georgia on Friday and losing 5-3 at CHS D2 North rival Tennessee. Against Georgia, Andrew Sledge made 46 saves while the Chargers only had 11 skaters.

“I was very happy with the effort from our team on Friday night at Georgia,” Flynn said. “We had a short bench, and a lot of guys who were not used to playing as many minutes as they did during that game. They did everything we asked, competed and kept us in the game really until the last minute or so. Obviously, Sledge was a rock in net and had a great game too.”

Against the Ice Vols, Tyler Trombly scored twice in a nip-and-tuck battle that was tied 2-2 after two periods, but UT blew ahead early in the third to split the season series.

“We hadn’t played our best up until (the third period) but were in a position to get points,” Flynn said. “We just had too many costly mistakes. Penalties, turnovers, blown assignments, etc. Things you can’t do against good teams.

“There are a lot of areas we can improve on, and honestly we’d probably been getting away with some bad habits at times up to this point. This will be a wake up call. Need to have a good week of practice and reset going into another weekend against two very tough opponents. Regardless of who we play Saturday, it’s going to be a challenge.”

The Chargers split their series with the Frozen Tide at home on Oct. 13-14, both games going to overtime. On Saturday, they will face either Auburn, who tied and beat UAH in Huntsville to start the season, or Middle Tennessee, against whom UAH scored 20 goals in a two-game sweep.

“We had a great back and forth series with Alabama about a month ago, so we’re excited for the rubber match on Friday,” Flynn said. “They have a lot of team speed, and they use it well. That’s always a challenge when we play them.

“Whether it’s Auburn or MTSU on Saturday, they each provide different challenges, but we’re just going to have to be ready to play our game, focus on our execution and limit mistakes both mental and physical to have success this weekend. Looking forward to a great tournament, it should be a lot of fun.”