The UNO radio announcers made a big deal last night about how UAH doesn’t get blown out, even if they’re losing, and they’re right: the worst games were 8-3 at St. Cloud to start this 12-game swing and 9-1 at Bentley. And then there was tonight.
The boys were in this one early. The pace was good, the hitting was up, and the forechecking was solid. Then a blind pass from the corner fed a one-timer in the low slot to make it 1-0 Mavericks. The boys rallied, and it was more of the good things we’d been seeing.
Then Sebastian Geoffrion made a hit that was deemed contact to the head, for which he was given a major penalty and a game misconduct. We were told on the broadcast that it was a disqualification, but the box score says that it’s a misconduct. This is important, as a disqualification would suspend Sebastian from the next game. But for this game’s purpose, he would miss the remainder of the game and Kyle Lysaght would sit out for the last :28 of the first and the first 4:32 of the 2nd.
If you’ll remember, the Chargers killed a major penalty on Anderson White last night. Tonight, a questionable penalty on Alex Allan put the boys down two men, and the Mavericks would score on that penalty and again on the rest of the major to go up 3-0. All was not lost, as a Maverick penalty mid-period gave the good guys a lot of jump that they used to finish out the period well save in the goal column.
Then there was the third: nifty stickwork, a low-angle shot that caromed in, a wraparound, a deft set of dekes, and a power-play goal put a hurtin’ on for certain.
This one was ugly, but the good thing about it is that the road trip is over, and the boys will be home next weekend. Come out Friday and Saturday nights at 7:00 p.m. to see the team face off against the US National Team Development Program Under-18 team. You’ll see some NHL draft picks on our ice, and hopefully you’ll see a couple UAH wins.