After it was all said and done, their trip was not a waste after all.<\/p>\n
Neil Ruffini scored just 29 seconds into overtime to give the University of Alabama-Huntsville a 3-2 College Hockey America victory over Niagara in front of a sparse crown in Dwyer Arena on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The win salvaged what could have been a disaster for the Chargers, who lost the first two games of this rare three-game series and made their lengthy bus ride home more bearable.<\/p>\n
“You always want to put teams behind you and eliminate that,” Huntsville coach Danton Cole said of Niagara and the CHA standings. “I thought we were a little bit better tonight than we were last night, which is good. The important thing for us is to approach the games in the right way.”<\/p>\n
UAH improved to 6-9-1 in College Hockey America action and 10-16-2 overall. More importantly, Sunday’s triumph gave them 13 points in the CHA standings, three over fourth-place Niagara. Each club has two league games remaining before the CHA Tournament March 11-12.<\/p>\n
The Purple Eagles are now 4-10-2 in CHA and 9-19-4 overall. <\/p>\n
Niagara concludes its season with a home-and-home series with CHA rival Robert Morris next weekend. The Purple Eagles visit the Colonials on Friday and host them on Saturday. Faceoff for both games is 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
“Both teams make mistakes when they are tired, I guess,” Niagara coach Dave Burkholder said of Sunday’s somewhat sloppy affair. “We have to tip our hat to their goalie. Sometimes you run into a hot goalie. We threw 43 pucks at him.”<\/p>\n
Huntsville goaltender Cameron Talbot finished with 41 saves, but it was Ruffini who turned out to be the hero for the Chargers. <\/p>\n
Just 23 seconds into overtime, Ruffini scored the game-winner when he barreled to the front of the Purple Eagles’ net and beat Niagara goaltender Adam Avramenko from close range to give the Chargers a much-needed victory.<\/p>\n
“I had a lane to the net, took it, pulled it back and took a shot,” said Ruffini, who has seven goals this season. “You never know what is going to happen in overtime, so I took the shot.”<\/p>\n
The Chargers jumped to a 2-0 lead early in the third period on goals by Ruffini and Tom Train and it looked like Niagara was done.<\/p>\n
However, the Purple Eagles fought back for a tie when Paul Zanette and Jeff Hannan scored goals just 2:41 apart late in the third period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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