UAH and the WCHA released a new 2020-21 schedule on Wednesday, setting a course for a shortened college hockey season while coping with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chargers will play 23 games, with 18 conference games and five non-conference games. UAH will play nine home games (all WCHA contests) at the Von Braun Center.

“In addition to state and local health and safety guidelines in force at each WCHA campus, the 2020-21 schedule will play out under the WCHA’s Return to Competition protocols,” the WCHA said in its press release. “Those protocols will include COVID-19 testing for student-athletes, coaches, staff and game officials as well as social-distancing requirements at all WCHA arenas.”

Every team in the WCHA will play 18 conference games, two against each of the other nine. Because of the restrictions on non-conference games for other conferences, most WCHA teams will play non-conference games against WCHA foes. UAH and Bowling Green are the only two that have any non-conference games against teams outside the WCHA.

The WCHA has set aside the weekend of March 5-6 for any games that may be postponed because of the pandemic. The conference tournament format has yet to be revealed, but it is scheduled for the weekends of March 12-13 and March 19-20.

The Chargers open the season in the Pittsburgh area on Nov. 20 and 21 at Robert Morris. It would be the first time since 2010 that UAH has played RMU, which hired former UAH head coach Mike Corbett over the summer. RMU, now with Atlantic Hockey. and UAH were both members of College Hockey America through 2010.

That will be the only non-conference series against a true non-conference opponent. UAH will visit Ferris State (Dec. 4) and Lake Superior State (Dec. 6-7) for three games that will not count in the WCHA standings.

The true start to the Chargers’ WCHA season is Jan. 2-3 at Michigan Tech. UAH’s first home series at the Von Braun Center will be Jan. 8-9 against Ferris State.

UAH hosts Northern Michigan (Jan. 22-23), Alaska Anchorage (Feb. 5-6) and Minnesota State (Feb. 11-12). The Chargers and travel partner Bowling Green will finish the regular season with a home-and-home series in Ohio (Wednesday, Feb. 24) and Huntsville (Saturday, Feb. 27).

This is expected to be the last season of the WCHA. Seven schools will be forming the new CCHA next season, with UAH still looking for a new conference home.

2020-21 UAH Hockey Schedule
Nov. 20-21 at Robert Morris
Dec. 4 at Ferris State
Dec. 6-7 at Lake Superior State
Jan. 1-2 at Michigan Tech*
Jan. 8-9 vs. Ferris State*
Jan. 15-16 at Bemidji State*
Jan. 22-23 vs. Northern Michigan*
Jan. 29-30 at Alaska*
Feb. 5-6 vs. Alaska Anchorage*
Feb. 11-12 vs. Minnesota State*
Feb. 19-20 at Lake Superior State*
Feb. 24 at Bowling Green*
Feb. 27 vs. Bowling Green*
 
Home games in bold. Game time is 7 p.m. for all home games except for Feb. 27 (2 p.m.).
*WCHA contest

The restart of Charger hockey is officially on hold because of COVID-19.

In a joint statement on Thursday, all Division I conferences announced that there will be a delay to the 2020-21 college hockey season due to the pandemic. Each conference will announce its own plans for the season, with the WCHA unveiling its revised schedule later in the fall.

“With 10 teams in five states, WCHA member institutions are currently operating under multiple state, local, university system, institutional and NCAA COVID-19 mandates,” the WCHA said in its statement. “Delaying the start of the season will provide league and member administrators the opportunity to continue detailed discussions regarding the implementation of a return to play plan that addresses the diverse guidelines all WCHA institutions must adhere to and recognizes the rapidly-evolving medical and safety environments that exist today.”

“It would be tough for us to play before January,” UAH athletic director Cade Smith said. “We’ll go with whatever the WCHA decides.”

Smith said teams traveling in buses and airplanes and going into locker rooms spreading the virus is the big concern.

Most fall sports at UAH and its primary league, the Gulf South Conference, have been cancelled. Charger basketball will not start before January.

The Huntsville Havoc, which shares the Von Braun Center with the Chargers, won’t begin their SPHL season until December. Venue limitations and capacity at the VBC will need to be worked out, Smith said.

“The University of Alabama system requires all athletes be tested every week, which is stricter than the NCAA guidelines,” Smith said. “How do we trace positives, how do we quarantine — these have taken much of administrative bandwidth.”

Smith said out of 150-160 tests this week, there were only eight positives. He feels that the protocols are working, and UAH head coach Lance West says his players are doing what needs to be done.

“The guys have been good at handling and protecting themselves and others,” West said. “They are preparing themselves as well as they can for when they can go.

“It’s been the hardest on the freshmen,” West said. “Their social interactions are limited and they are away from home. The veterans have been good at keeping them focused on what they can do as opposed to what they expected to do when they got to college.

“If you want to play, there are certain things they have to give up and choices they have to make.”

The Chargers are expected to have 13 freshmen this season, according to our commitment list, as West and his staff worked to build back the roster following the cancellation and restoration of the program. UAH is expected to announce the full roster soon once everyone has been cleared.

“That’s just the situation we were dealt,” West said. “We accepted the challenge together and found a way to get it done. You’ll see a team of hungry guys with something to prove.

“Everyone has a piece of where we’re headed. We will empower the guys that will set the tone for the future of the program. When we hit the ice, we will have the old-school, simple mentality of getting better every day.”

Meanwhile, the search for a conference home for the 2021-22 season continues. The primary target is now the Atlantic Hockey Association.

“I had a good call with the commissioner of the AHA (Robert DeGregorio, Jr.) about a month ago,” Smith said. “He laid out everything. I sent him a letter of interest, trying to gain an audience with their league about the application process.”

Atlantic Hockey currently has 11 teams, meaning UAH could become the 12th.

Smith says we could know by the time the Chargers play their first game this season, whenever that is, whether UAH has landed a spot in the conference.

The other option, the Central Collegiate Athletic Association, is now a long-shot at best. The CCHA announced the addition of the St. Paul-based University of St. Thomas as its eighth team on July 29, and it appears the new conference, comprising of seven WCHA programs, will be satisfied with eight entering its first season in 2021-22.

Hoof Beats: UAH announced the addition of former Charger goaltender Carmine Guerriero to the staff last Friday.

Guerriero played in 77 games for the Chargers from 2013-17. His .910 career save percentage was second best in UAH’s modern Division I era and fourth best all-time. His 3.19 career goals against average was fifth best in the D-I era and ninth all-time.

Last season, Guerriero was a volunteer goaltending coach at St. Lawrence.

Another former UAH netminder, Scott Munroe, has been named a player development coach at Total Package Hockey of Phoenix. Munroe, who played at UAH from 2002-2006, is the schools all-time leader in save percentage (.918) and helped the Chargers win the College Hockey America regular-season title in 2003.

Around the WCHA: Alaska Anchorage was given a chance to save its program after the Board of Regents voted Thursday to cut it following this season. The Seawolves must raise $3 million — two years of operating expenses — by February for the Board to consider reinstating the team. … The Alaska Nanooks team was quarantined as of August 30 after a player tested positive for COVID-19 following an on-campus gathering.

How do keep chins up when a team has been struggling to find their first win as the Chargers have?

UAH is 0-3-1 in the last two series. In three of those games, the Chargers have either matched or bettered the opponent in shots on goal, a vast improvement from the first six games. The three losses were essentially one-goal affairs with an empty-net goal tacked on the end.

“I won’t call it ‘puck luck,'” UAH head coach Corbett said during Tuesday’s media session. “You get what you deserve. This is where our program is at, where we have to take that next step and just win the game.”

Still, Corbett said the Chargers have been encouraged over the last four games.

“The biggest thing is making sure (the players’) attitude is right, making sure they’re understanding that we are getting better, that we’re improving and how close it is, because these kids like to see the final result.

“We had six breakaways and missed five of them over the weekend. If we score one, does everything change? Who knows, but our guys need something like that to cling to. The great thing about it is we’re getting those opportunities. We’re showing those things and being positive about it.

“I wouldn’t say frustrated, but we’re all at the point where we want to see some results, but we have to understand that our process has to stay the same. Now we just have to finish. We’re at the finish line, now we have to finish, and that’s just getting that puck over that red line.”

Corbett said the upperclassmen need to be a leaders for the freshmen.

“A lot of times you can camouflage your own frustration by helping someone through theirs. I talked to one of our captains about that — go through that process with (a younger player), and it will probably be very therapeutic for you.

“It’s easy for those younger guys to be frustrated. Part of why we like this group so much is that they came from very successful programs where they have won. We want that leadership, that winning mentality in our program. So it’s been frustrating for them, but that’s where (upperclassmen) have to be able to lead them and show them the way.”

The coaching staff will be recruiting this weekend during the off week, and there will be a captains’ practice on Friday.

“They don’t want to hear it from us anymore,” Corbett said. “They want to start seeing some results, so they’ve got to bond together. We’re keeping it simple and saying we don’t need a ton, we just need that extra 10 percent, that second effort, and I think the older guys can help them with that.”

The Chargers’ next series is Nov. 22 and 23 at Bemidji State (3-3-2 overall, 3-1-0 WCHA). The Beavers outscored Lake Superior State 12-2 in a sweep at home last weekend. If the Chargers (0-9-1, 0-5-1) want to improve their chances for victory, they’ll need to cut down their 4.17 goals allowed per game average in conference games.

“Some of the things we have to cure within our defensive systems, we’re working on a little bit each day,” Corbett said. “Bemidji is scoring a lot of goals right now, that’s the biggest thing we’re looking at for them. We’ve got to tighten up defensively and figure out where our flaws are.”

Chargers in the pros: Josh Kestner is on a roll with the Toledo Walleye.

Kestner has a 10-game point-scoring streak, tied for the longest in the ECHL this season. In 11 regular-season games played, the Huntsville native has 12 points on four goals and eight assists.

Here’s how former Chargers are doing in the ECHL so far this season (through Nov. 13):

In the NHL, goaltender Cam Talbot continues to back up David Rittich in Calgary. He made his fifth start on Wednesday, stopping 29 of 31 shots in the Flames’ 3-1 loss to the Dallas Stars at home. Talbot has a 2.69 goals against average and .907 save percentage this season.

Alaska teams to play next season: College sports will continue for another year at Alaska and Alaska Anchorage, the schools announced on Friday.

That means the Seawolves and Nanooks hockey teams will be playing in the WCHA for the 2020-21 season.

The future is still uncertain after that. The conference is facing its demise in 2021 as seven schools plan to leave and form a new league, leaving UAA, UAF, and UAH searching for a new home.

This week in the WCHA: All times Central. All WCHA conference games (*) can be seen on FloHockey.tv (online subscription).

Friday, November 15
Bemidji State at Ferris State, 6:07 p.m.
Alaska at #18 Northern Michigan, 6:07 p.m.
Michigan Tech at Lake Superior State, 6:07 p.m.
#17 Bowling Green at Alaska Anchorage, 10:07 p.m.

Saturday, November 16
Bemidji State at Ferris State, 5:07 p.m.
Alaska at #18 Northern Michigan, 5:07 p.m.
Michigan Tech at Lake Superior State, 6:07 p.m.
#17 Bowling Green at Alaska Anchorage, 8:07 p.m.