WEST CHESTER, Pa. — The UAH club hockey team showed resiliance Saturday against the No. 3 team in AAU Division 2, but the Chargers will be in a must-win situation to stay alive in this national tournament.
High Point defeated UAH 6-4 to take full control of Pool C and likely have earned a spot in the quarterfinals. But the Chargers, who cut a three-goal deficit to one at one point, never went quietly.
“I’m definitely proud of how the guys battled and responded,” UAH head coach Tim Flynn said. “Lot of guys played a lot of minutes and worked very hard. Ultimately, we knew they were a good team with good players, and we made one too many mistakes and couldn’t get all the way back in it.”
“First and foremost, I’m really proud of how the guys played today,” said UAH captain Bradly McDonald. “We try to win each period, just getting pucks low and playing gritty. We had a short bench, so that’s what we have to do.”
The Chargers (11-11-1) must beat Farmingdale State on Sunday, and perhaps get some help, to be one of the three wildcards among second-place teams in the five pools to qualify for the quarterfinals.
“Us playing a good game today really fires us up to play tomorrow,” McDonald said. “It’s a game we have to win and all the boys are excited to play. We’re ready to get to bed and get after it tomorrow.”
The Chargers took the early lead by crashing the net. Adrian Mai scored to put UAH up 1-0 with 16:31 left in the first, assisted by Elijah Howard and McDonald. It was Mai’s first goal of the season.
High Point (29-4-0) came right back, as Nick Sasso had an open net from a cross-ice pass to tie the game at 1-1 three minutes later.
The Panthers took the lead near the halfway point of the first, scoring on the power play following a Henry Hoff tripping penalty.
With 2:55 left in the period, Jacob Newman was called for roughing after checking High Point’s Joseph Di Martino, who had shot the puck on Crawford following an offsides whistle.
UAH scored on the ensuing 4-on-4 situation, with Josh Corrow sliding in front of and beating HPU goaltender Brian Scopel to tie the game at 2-2. He was assisted by Hoff and Crawford, his first point as a goalie.
But the Panthers regained the lead almost immediately with 1:08 left, and then took a 4-2 lead on a breakaway goal 38 seconds into the second.
High Point extended its lead to 5-2 with an odd angle goal from the left side. But even with the large deficit, it didn’t feel like the Panthers were dominating the Chargers. And that left confidence that UAH could rally.
Penalties started piling up for the Panthers in the final minutes of the second, resulting with three straight power plays for UAH. This included a 1:23 stretch of two-man advantage, when Keaton Watts scored on a centering pass from Henry Hoff to cut High Point’s lead to 5-3.
“It was a greasy goal,” Keaton Watts said. “We were all just battling in front of the net. Hoff was able to center it right to me in the slot and I was able to put in, but it was definitely a battle for sure.
“That’s been the story all year. We’ve been trying to persevere.”
Another tripping penalty extended into the third period, and UAH drew within one at 5-4 as Kolton Watts’ shot from the slot found its way through the Scopel’s five-hole.
“Power plays are strange for us, so we know we have to capitalize when we get them,” Flynn said. “Couple of 5-on-3s that we scored on and able to get back early in the third. We were trying to keep it tight and hopefully just find the chance.”
High Point finalized the 6-4 score with a goal with 9:27 remaining, and the Chargers could recover after that.
“Tough break off the faceoff towards the end there and they got their sixth one,” Flynn said.
Now UAH must focus on defeating Farmingdale State, the No. 18 overall seed, playing their third game in three days. FSC lost its pool play opener to High Point 3-0 on Friday, and lost 10-1 to Central Florida on Saturday night.
“Three games in three days is hard, especially with the travel,” Flynn said. “We are fortunate in that our game times are pretty spread apart. A couple of hours can go a long way.”
“For us, we need to play our game and to our strengths,” Keaton Watts said. “We’re a pretty quick team and we have a lot of skill as well. Try to get that first goal and just keep going, going, going the rest of the game.”
Pictured top: Bradly McDonald talks with AAU College Hockey’s Siobhan Nolan after UAH’s game with High Point. Photo by Tim Newman.