Huntsville, Ala. - Holding a 3-1 lead going into the final twenty minutes of play, the Robert Morris University men's hockey team looked poised to win its third straight contest against the University of Alabama-Huntsville. However, the Chargers had other plans as they stormed back with three unanswered scores to stun the Colonials, 4-3, on Saturday night in the Von Braun Center.
With the loss, the Colonials drop to 9-16-5 and 5-7-3 in CHA action. Now RMU holds just a two point advantage over UAH with three conference games remaining before the CHA Tournament on March 12-13.
Robert Morris opened the scoring 12 minutes in when freshman Stefan Salituro (Willodale, Ontario / Mahoning Valley Phantoms) notched the sixth of his career from sophomore Trevor Lewis (Lititz, Pa. / Syracuse Stars).
Just two minutes later, Lewis tacked on his own goal at the 14:33 mark thanks to helpers from forwards Zach Hervato (Stittsville, Ontario / Smiths Falls Bears) and Furman South (Sewickley, Pa. / Bay State Breakers) to take a, 2-0, lead with another even strength goal.
The scoring frenzy continued as the Chargers then got on the board at 16:21 with a power play marker from Cody Campbell to cut the RMU edge to 2-1.
After a first period that featured a great deal of offensive play, the second seemed relatively quiet as both teams remained scoreless for the first 17 minutes of the session. At 17:01, Ron Cramer (New Wilmington, Pa. / Indiana Ice) broke the scoring drought to extend Robert Morris' lead to 3-1 heading into the third period. Freshman (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Topeka Roadrunners) and sophomore Brandon Blandina (Centennial, Colo. / Indiana Ice)Andrew Blazek assisted on the third RMU goal.
Unbeaten so far in 2009-10 when holding a lead going into the final session, the Colonials sought to keep the streak unblemished as they took to the ice for the last twenty minutes.
But the Chargers wasted little time getting back into the game as they pulled within one as Neil Riffini added a second UAH goal two minutes in.
Still grasping a 3-2 advantage, the Colonials saw their lead melt away when Curtis deBruyn deadlocked the game at 9:52 with his first goal of the season on a power play.
With the momentum shift clearly in favor of Alabama-Huntsville, the Chargers continued to surge late in the contest. Jamie Easton finally capped off the scoring with UAH's game winner at 16:41 of the third period.
Despite owning shots through the first two periods, the Chargers concluded the night with a 30-28 edge thanks to their late rally.
Sophomore goalie Brooks Ostergard (Chagrin Falls, Ohio / Bay State Breakers) made 26 saves in the defeat.
The Colonials will face Alabama-Huntsville again tomorrow afternoon in a key match-up as the two squads battle for the second slot in the CHA conference standings. The puck is set to drop at 1:05 p.m.
