The UAH club hockey team has played four games, but after a month-long layoff and finally getting a chance to play at home, it feels like a season restart for the Chargers. It’s probably the best way to approach it.
UAH, which lost its first four games in September, will open College Hockey South play this weekend against Vanderbilt at the Huntsville Ice Sports Center. The puck drops at 9:45 p.m. on Friday and 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.
“It definitely feels like another opening weekend, I guess in a sense it is,” UAH head coach Tim Flynn said. “Home opener, first weekend of division games, it’s exciting and we’re ready to get going (again).
“We’ve had a good month of practice, which should allow us to a more complete and consistent game. The guys have bought into the team and its success. They’ve definitely put in the work so now we need to get some results.”
The Chargers will need to kick-start their offense after scoring only four goals so far. Three tallies are by returnees Henry Hoff, Tyler Trombly, and Elijah Howard, and the fourth by newcomer Matthew Davis.
Vanderbilt (4-3-0) won its first three games, then lost three in a row before beating Indiana on Oct. 4. The Commodores have a pair of CHS Division 2 North games under their belt, splitting a pair against Ole Miss.
Harrison Parent leads Vanderbilt with five goals this season. Cole Miller and Michael Cowling have three goals each.
“Vanderbilt is one of the more disciplined teams we’re going to play this year they work extremely hard,” Flynn said. “They don’t do anything super flashy but they do just about everything very well. We know we need to go out and compete for 60 minutes, limit mistakes and penalties, and execute the little details.”
“I’ve been listening to some of the college football coaches whose teams aren’t quite where they expected or wanted to be at this point in the year,” Flynn said. “The common theme is there’s not a magic play or scheme that’s going to ‘fix everything.’ They’re just focused on doing ordinary things very well. I think that applies to our team at the moment and I think we’ve done that so we’re excited for the weekend. We’ve mentioned this is our first step in our path to the playoffs, so that’s our focus and we’ll see where we end up Saturday evening.”