Mark Sinclair had his finest collegiate outing by far, but it wasn’t enough to overcome UAH’s scoring woes.
Sinclair made a career-high 46 saves on 47 Tiger shots in the Chargers’ 1-0 loss at Colorado College on Friday.
UAH (0-3-0), which scored on its first shot in the season opener last Saturday at Miami, hasn’t found the net since in being shut out for a second straight game. It didn’t help that the Chargers again didn’t get nearly as many chances as the Tigers (2-1-0) , who only allowed 18 shots.
UAH has been kept under 20 shots on goal in all three games. It won’t get any easier Saturday, when the Chargers head to Denver to face the 10th-ranked Pioneers at 8:07 p.m. CDT.
The struggle for puck possession that hurt the Chargers at Miami last week continued into the first period on Friday. Boosted by three power plays, including a full two-minute, two-man advantage about halfway through the period, the Tigers outshot UAH by a whopping 23-5 in the frame.
Sinclair, a sophomore who is still winless in seven career starts, was on point in his second start of the season, however, stopping all 23 pucks. The defensive corps also pitched in with 10 blocked shots. Meanwhile, UAH could only muster 10 shot attempts in the first.
Still, it was a scoreless game, and the Chargers showed some energy in the second period. They had longer sustained moments with the puck, and the shot totals actually went UAH’s way at 10-8.
But Colorado College would the score the lone goal at the 7:26 mark. Christiano Versich took a pass from left wing, one-timed it from the slot and beat Sinclair on the Tigers’ 26th shot on goal.
That would be all the Tigers needed, but not for lack of trying to extend their lead in the third. CC posted another 16 shots on goal for a total of 47.
Sinclair was phenomenal, stopping everything the rest of the way with the body and glove. The best came with 4:51 to go, when Alex Berardinelli redirected a shot on him from point blank and Sinclair pounced.
But UAH could only got three shots in the third on Tiger goalie Alex Leclerc, who finished with 18 saves for his seventh career shutout.