The College Hockey South Division 2 quarterfinal between UAH and Tennessee was the season’s rubber match between the two clubs. Each team had a close win under its belt, so the Chargers felt like they had a fighting chance despite being the seventh seed to the Vols’ second seed.
In the end, Tennessee showed itself to be the stronger team, peppering UAH’s defenses and rolling to a 6-1 win at the Huntsville Ice Sports Center on Friday night.
The Chargers (9-10-1) will face Vanderbilt in the seventh-place game at the ISC on Saturday at 11 a.m. The Ice Vols (15-8-0) take on Tampa in the evening semfinals.
Tennessee outshot UAH by a 67-31 margin. The Vols’ pressure started and was maintained from the opening faceoff.
Most of the action in the first period was in the UAH zone as the Ice Vols maintained a constant pressure early. Tennessee would eventually get on the board first on a Will Schneider goal at the 5:34 mark.
But the Chargers would capitalize on a chance with under six minutes left in the first. Tyler Trombly’s outlet pass found Kolton Watts on a breakaway, and Watts beat UT goaltender Lincoln Simons from the slot to knot the game at 1-1.
UAH goaltender Cameron Crawford made 18 saves to keep the Chargers level at the first intermission despite Tennessee outshooting the Chargers 19-9. That would be his least busy period, however, as Crawford finished with 61 saves total, one short of his season high.
The Vols remained relentless, and scored two goals early in the second period to take a 3-1 lead. Jason Seaholm got a deflection past Crawford 1:38 into the frame, and then Connor Frazer finished a 2-on-1 break almost five minutes later.
Tennessee went up 4-1 on a power-play goal by Chris Kelly with 4:05 left in the second.
UAH had two chances on a breakaway and a 2-on-1 early in the third period, but Simons (30 saves) made the critical stops to keep the complexion of the game from changing. Then Kyle Oakley scored with 16:24 to go for a 5-1 Tennessee lead to add insult to injury. Kyle Stober scored the Vols’ sixth goal to finish it.
Other Friday quarterfinal results:
Clemson 4, Florida 3 (OT)
No. 6 seed Clemson rallied from a 3-0 deficit to defeat No. 3 Florida 4-3 in overtime.
Herbert Kopf scored the game-winner with 1:22 remaining in overtime. He also scored the Tigers’ first goal in the second period.
Michael Katz scored twice for the Gators.
Tampa 2, Central Florida 2 (Tampa wins shootout)
No. 5 seed Tampa won its quarterfinal over No. 4 Central Florida in a shootout following a 2-2 tie.
Aeryk Lehrhaupt and Ryan Steiner scored for Tampa in regulation, while Kent Bishop and Jacob Graziotti scored for UCF.
Florida Atlantic 5, Vanderbilt 1
The No. 8 seed Commodores had thoughts of a possible upside of the top-ranked team in AAU Division 2 after the first two periods were scoreless, but the Owls put those notions away with four goals in the first half of the third period. Leon Biller had a hat trick.
Saturday’s schedule
7th Place Game: #7 UAH vs. #8 Vanderbilt, 11 a.m.
5th Place Game: #3 Florida vs. #4 Central Florida, 1:30 p.m.
Semfinal 1: #2 Tennessee vs. #5 Tampa, 4 p.m.
Semfinal 2: #1 Florida Atlantic vs. #6 Clemson, 6:30 p.m.