Bemidji State’s Matt Climie and Alabama-Huntsville’s Blake MacNicol both stopped three dozen opponents’ shots, but the visiting Beavers put two past MacNicol to pull into a three-way tie atop the College Hockey America standings with a 2-0 win at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville.
“We’re obviously not satisfied with the outcome. We want to win hockey games,” commented UAH coach Danton Cole, whose Chargers slip to 1-6 on the season after losing their CHA opener. “We’re looking at [tonight’s game] as a bit of a step forward, but the guys are still in there, ticked off, feeling kind of lousy. They competed well and did some good things.”
The homestanding Chargers were solid in the first ten minutes of the first period, controlling the play in the Beavers’ end. “Overall, I was very happy with the first,” Cole said of the period, where the Chargers outshot the visitors 15-7. Travis Winter initiated the scoring for BSU with a goal to end a multiple shot-and-save flurry on MacNicol’s doorstep at 1:30 of the second period, kicking off a period where Bemidji outshot the Chargers 24-11, with 11 coming on the power play.
“There were some periods in the second where we got away from what we wanted to do, and then we kind of caught ourselves and came back in the third. It was a typical bangin’-it-around third, but they put in the second one before we could get the first one.” Matt Francis picked up the second goal with a long shot that appeared to catch MacNicol off guard.
“No one feels sorry for us. The crowd doesn’t, and I’m certain that Bemidji doesn’t. We’ve got to come out and improve tomorrow, because you know Bemidji will be better tomorrow as well.”
Bemidji State and Alabama-Huntsville face off for the second time in their six-game series at 4:05 p.m. Central at the Von Braun Center.
