Critical turnovers cost the Chargers on Friday in their 4-1 loss to Vermont in the opening round of the Catamount Cup in Burlington, Vt.
UAH (3-16-0) will play Northeastern on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. The Huskies beat RPI 3-2 in overtime in the first game on Friday.
Vermont outshot the Chargers 33-15 in improving to 6-8-1.
There was no scoring in the first period, but Vermont did win the possession battle, outshooting the Chargers 10-3 with a couple of crossbars hit.
UAH also lost forward Christian Rajic, who was hit hard while taking a shot. He was immediately attended to by trainers on a stoppage of play and did not return.
Vermont took a 1-0 lead at the 3:41 mark in the second period on a bad UAH turnover near the Charger net. Joey Cipollone slipped the puck between Mark Sinclair’s legs in the ensuing scramble.
Another UAH turnover led to a 2-0 Vermont advantage with 2:09 left in the period. Ace Cowans buried a centering pass in the slot from Craig Puffer.
The Catamounts rolled to eight quick shots on goal early in the third period, and eventually took a 3-0 lead with 12:25 left. This time, Sinclair let in a rare soft goal, as Vlad Dzhioshvili’s shot hit his glove but trickled in anyway.
UAH got on the board with 8:31 to go when Bauer Neudecker scored on a wrister for his third goal of the season. Jack Jeffers and Andrew Dodson got the assists.
Vermont finished the game with an empty-net goal by Matt O’Donnell with 12.6 seconds to go.
Sinclair finished with 29 saves. His Catamount counterpart, Stefanos Lekkas, stopped 14 of 15 shots.