UAH completed its 2015-16 season in ugly fashion Saturday night, losing to Bowling Green 5-0 at the Von Braun Center.
The Chargers (7-21-6 overall, 5-17-6 WCHA) were shut out for the third time this season. The Falcons (20-12-6 overall, 16-7-5 WCHA) host a first-round WCHA playoff series against Bemidji State next week.
The first period saw a few penalties and a few power plays, but that was just the beginning.
UAH could not convert on its first two (including a two-man advantage for 1:14), but Bowling Green did on its first. Brett D’Andrea beat Charger goaltender Carmine Guerriero from just in front of the crease for a 1-0 Falcon lead with 8:00 left in the first.
Bowling Green got another power play with 4:23 left after Brandon Parker gets called for slashing, but UAH killed that along with a shorthanded breakaway chance by Adam Wilcox.
Then with 1:38 left in the first, the Falcons got a two-man advantage of their own after Brent Fletcher was given a minor for charging, and Anderson White got a major for kneeing on a collision with Mitch McLain that required McLain to be helped off the ice and to the locker room.
The hard-hitting, penalty-inducing play continued into the second period. UAH killed the remainder of the two-man advantage and the major power play, then got two more advantages itself on a holding penalty on Sean Walker and an interference call on McLain, who was able to return to action.
UAH still couldn’t score on BG netminder Chris Nell, and had to survive another penalty kill after having too many men on the ice.
With all that, Bowling Green didn’t need any power plays to extend its lead. John Schilling made it 2-0 at 6:47 of the second, firing the puck alone in front of Guerriero, who made the save. The rebound came right to Schilling behind Guerriero, and Schilling buried it.
On UAH’s fifth power play of the night, Nell stoned Josh Kestner after a nice pass from Chad Brears. That was the Chargers’ best scoring chance at that point.
The Falcons took a 3-0 lead with 56 seconds remaining in the second when Stephen Baylis beat Guerriero high from the slot.
At the end of the second, Frank Misuraca hit BG’s Tyler Spezia high at center ice. Spezia was slow to get up, and Misuraca, one of the four seniors playing his last game for UAH, only got a minor penalty.
The third period was all Bowling Green. The Falcons outshot the Chargers 20-6 for the period, finishing with a 36-24 advantage for the game.
BG made it 4-0 on a Brandon Hawkins goal at 7:10, and Baylis got his second goal of the night on the power play at 13:16.
Nell rebounded from allowing six goals in UAH’s 7-5 win on Friday night to posting his fourth shutout of the season. He made 24 saves.
Guerriero stopped 31 of 36 shots for UAH.
The Falcons were 2-of-8 on the power play, while the Chargers where 0-for-7.