Pittsburgh, Pa. ? The Robert Morris University men's ice hockey team kicked off College Hockey America (CHA) action on Friday night at the Robert Morris Island Sports Center against rival Alabama-Huntsville. With a loud and energetic crowd in attendance, the Colonials were able to rally from a two goal deficit to tie the Chargers at three.
Both offenses got off to a quick start in the first period, however solid goaltending kept the score tied at zero. Robert Morris outshot Alabama-Huntsville 19 to 13 overall in the first while Colonial goalkeeper Wes Russell (Springfield, Ill. / Quinnipac) made seven saves.
The second period took a different tone as the Chargers scored two goals in the first five minutes. On a power play, UAH's Matt Baxter pushed a shot behind Russell to tally the first score of the night and put the Chargers up 1-0 at the 2:40 mark. Assists on the goal went to Brandon Roshko and Tom Train.
Three minutes later, UAH doubled its lead at the 5:51 mark as Cody Campbell scored off a pass from Tom Durnie on another power play goal.
With just 28 seconds remaining in the second, senior Chris Margott (Thousand Oaks, Calif. / Bay State Breakers) scored his second goal of the season to cut the Chargers lead to one. The play began when freshman Stefan Lachapelle (Waterloo, Ontario / Hawkesbury Hawks) won the faceoff and passed to sophomore Denny Urban (Pittsburgh, Pa / Ohio Blue Jackets). Urban then found a streaking Margott who fired a shot pass Chargers goalie for the score.
For the first seven minutes of the third period, the score would remain 2-1 in favor of Alabama-Huntsville. Finally, the Colonials tied the game at two all as senior Jason Towsley (LaSalle, Ontario / Leamington Flyers) recorded his first goal of the season off of assists from Urban and sophomore Brock Meadows (White Rock, B.C. / Wayne State) at 12:17 in the third.
The game did not remain tied for long. The Chargers stormed back less than one minute later when Cale Tanaka slid the puck into the net past Russell to take a 3-2 lead. Picking up an assist and his second point of the night was Campbell. A secondary assist was awarded to Brennan Barker.
Robert Morris continued to fire shots on the Charger goal and finally came away with a score at the 18:20 mark. Assists from Nathan Longpre (Peterborough, Ontario / Mahoning Valley Phantoms) and Urban allowed Margott to tally his second goal of the night and his 100th career point at RMU as he deadlocked the game at three.
With the game tied at three, the Chargers and Colonials were forced into overtime play. Robert Morris outshot UAH 5-2 in the OT period, but neither team picked up the game winning score.
Overall, the Colonials outshot the Chargers 35-28 but were 0-4 on the power play. Russell notched 25 saves as his record goes to 1-3-2.
Robert Morris (1-3-2; 0-0-1 CHA) will face off against Alabama-Huntsville again tomorrow night at the Island Sports Center. The game is slated for a 7:35 p.m. start.
