The Chargers played perhaps their best back-to-back periods of hockey Friday night but they came up short in a 4-3 loss to Lake Superior State.
In the WCHA opener for both teams, UAH falls to 0-7 overall, 0-1 in league play ; the Lakers improve to 3-0, 1-0.
“The last two periods, we did a good job,” said UAH head coach Mike Corbett. “We can be proud of the effort.”
The Lakers took a 1-0 lead in the first period while firing 19 shots on goal; UAH had just four shots.
The Chargers came out quicker in the second period, beating the Lakers to the puck on several occasions and the hard work paid off when Tyr Thompson scored at the 3:45 mark.
“We started to win the battles and went on the offensive,” Corbett said.
UAH was on the power play when Kurt Gosselin fired a shot from just inside the blue line. Lakers’ goalie Nick Kossoff made the initial save but Thompson put the puck in the net to tie the score. It was the first goal of Thompson’s UAH career.
“It was sort of a garbage goal,” he said. “It was a good shot by Goose {Gosselin) at the point.
“I picked up the garbage and put it in.”
The second period ended with the score tied at 1-1, setting up a wild third period.
The momentum seemed to swing back to the Lakers in the early going of the third period when they reclaimed the lead on Collin Saccoman’s goal with 4:22 gone in the period. With both teams skating 4-on-4, Anthony Nellis scored with 7:24 showing on the clock for a 3-1 Lake Superior State lead.
But UAH’s Brandon Salerno cut the lead to one when he scored at 15:25 of the period, giving new life to the Chargers.
As the clock wound down, Corbett pulled goaltender Mark Sinclair to give the Chargers an extra skater;
UAH initially put pressure on the Lakers’ defense and Kossoff but Lake State got breathing room when Alexandro Ambrosio scored an empty-net goal for a 4-2 lead with 1:21 showing on the clock.
The Chargers, though, didn’t let the setback affect them.
“The guys battled hard,” Gosselin said.
And the battling paid off when Connor James scored with 22 seconds left to cut the Lakers’ lead to 4-3.
But that would be as close as the Chargers would get, despite several scrambles in the Lakers’ end.
“We battled through adversity,” Corbett said. “We battled to the end.”
The two teams return to action Saturday night with faceoff set for 7:07.
“We’re hungry for the win,” Gosselin said.