Alabama-Huntsville chased Bemidji State starting goaltender Dannie Morgan after less than 25 minutes, en route to a 6-3 victory over the Beavers in John Glas Fieldhouse. The win gave the teams a split in the College Hockey America series.
“It’s hard to sweep in a league with this much parity,” Bemidji State head coach Tom Serratore said. “Heikki Lofman was hurt and knocked out of the game in the second period, so we mixed things up and tried a few different combos.”
The Chargers picked up two goals in the final six minutes of the first period and skated into the first intermission with a 2-0 advantage. Doug Watkins got the Chargers on the board first with a power-play goal at 14:17, and Keith Rowe gave UAH its 2-0 lead just 2:17 later on an even-strength goal at 16:34.
Huntsville extended its lead to 4-0 and chased Morgan, who came into the weekend leading the CHA in goals-against average and save percentage, with two even-strength goals off the stick of Jessi Otis at 1:16 and 4:59 of the second period.
BSU tried to get back into the game, picking up a power-play goal by Bryce Methven at 7:16 of the second and an even-strength tally from Brendan Cook, his first career goal, at 16:32 to cut the lead to 4-2.
The Chargers scored again at 18:56 of the second, on a play initially ruled no goal. After play stopped 20 seconds after the disputed shot, officials conferred with the goal judge and awarded Tyler Butler the goal to give the Chargers what would be an insurmountable 5-2 lead.
BSU pulled Morgan¹s replacement, Grady Hunt, for an extra attacker with 5:16 to play in the game. Huntsville picked up an empty-net goal off the stick of Craig Bushey at 17:41, and Marty Goulet scored for BSU with an extra attacker with 13 seconds left in the game to bring the score to the final.
Jeff McGill assisted on Goulet’s extra-attacker goal at the end of the game and extended his scoring streak to eight games.
BSU (5-6-1, 2-2-0 CHA) falls to 5-14-0 all-time against UAH; the Chargers (7-5-0, 4-2-0) have won 11 of the last 13 meetings in the series.
The Beavers have two weeks off for the Thanksgiving holiday and return to the ice Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 at Wayne State (Mich.).
