Northern Michigan broke a tie with two late second-period goals and spoiled UAH’s Senior Day with a 6-3 win at the Von Braun Center on Saturday.
UAH (6-24-2 overall, 6-16-2-2 WCHA), which honored eight seniors prior to the Chargers’ final home game of the season, will have next week off before heading to Ferris State looking to lock down a WCHA playoff spot.
Northern Michigan (15-13-1, 14-7-1-0) took four of six points for the weekend, and moved into a tie for second place with Bowling Green in the WCHA standings.
UAH, which took two points Friday by winning in the 3-on-3 overtime following a 2-2 tie, scored first again Saturday. Connor James’s blast from long range and through traffic got past Atte Tolvanen.
His third goal of the season came at the 5:56 mark and was assisted by Christian Rajic and Madison Dunn.
The Wildcats, who scored both of their goals on Friday on the power play, struck again with the man advantage to tie the game at 1-1. Vincent De Mey got the goal from the left circle.
NMU took its first lead of the series early in the second period, as Griffin Loughran’s wrap-around past Jake Theut (34 saves) put the Wildcats up 2-1 at the 4:02 mark.
UAH tied the game on a beautiful power play goal two minutes later. Bauer Neudecker from the left circle passed to Austin Beaulieu near the left post, who set up Hans Gorowsky in the slot. Gorowsky beat Tolvanen high for his ninth goal of the season.
The Wildcats regained the lead at 3-2 with 3:25 left in the second. During 4-on-4 action, NMU had a 3-on-1 rush, with Tony Bretzman backhanding the puck in.
NMU took a two-goal advantage at 4-2 with 46 seconds left in the period. Jarrett Lee scored on another wrap-around, bouncing the puck just over Theut’s glove.
The Chargers started a rally on the power play in the third period. James scored again, this time from the right side, to cut NMU’s lead to 4-3 with 11:21 to go.
Dunn and Rajic provided the assists again. Rajic has a team-high 11 helpers on the season.
But the rally was snuffed when the Wildcats struck yet again on the power play. Denver Pierce’s one-timer in the slot glanced off the post and in and NMU lead by two again, 5-3, with 6:49 remaining.
The Wildcats finished with four power play goals on the weekend, beating a UAH penalty kill that was as high as fifth in Division I but has since fallen to 24th over the last three weeks.
Troy Loggins sealed the game with a long-range, empty-net goal with 24 seconds remaining.
Tolvanen stopped 24 of 26 UAH shots for the win.
UAH entered the day eight points ahead of FSU for eighth place in the WCHA standings and four points ahead of Alaska for seventh.