FT. WAYNE, Ind. --  Having battled through periods of adversity throughout the season, the Alabama-Huntsville (12-18-3) hockey team refused to give up despite being down a pair of goals in the waning moments of the contest against top-ranked Miami (OH) (28-7-7) in the opening round of the NCAA Midwest Regional in Ft. Wayne, Ind., on Saturday afternoon.  The Chargers emptied the net and the move paid off with 38 seconds remaining but UAH could not manage an equalizer against the Redhawks and fell 2-1 ending a solid season for the Blue and White.

"We battled and battled for 60 minutes," noted UAH head coach Danton Cole.  I’m not so proud of them for that because I expect that out of them.  They did what they are supposed to do and they worked hard, and they made the university proud.   I’m proud of all the hard work they’ve done all year.  They’ve improved a lot over the past three years. This is a heck of a bunch of guys, and we’re moving forward with a lot of things and the culture of what we want to do.  I’m proud of them."

Having killed a dozen straight penalties off entering the contest, the UAH penalty-killing unit ranked fourth best in the nation blanked the Redhawks on their first two chances with the man advantage but it would be the third chance of the night for MU that snapped the run.  Miami's Carter Camper gathered the puck behind the Charger net and found Curtis McKenzie at 10:24 to open the scoring.

The score remained 1-0 until 6:06 of the second when MU's Cameron Schilling fired a wrister on net that glanced off the top of junior netminder Cameron Talbot's (Caledonia, Ontario) mitt and rolled across his shoulders onto his back and into the net for the 2-0 Miami advantage.

The score remained 2-0 until the final minute of action.  With the man advantage thanks to a late holding penalty by the Redhawks, Cole opted for the extra attacker emptying Talbot from net and the move paid off when senior blueliner Brennan Barker (Long Sault, Ontario) capped off his career by bringing UAH within a goal at 19:22.  Freshmen forwards Keenan Desmet (Strathmore, Alberta) and Justin Cseter (Menomonie, Wisc.) assisted on the play in their first NCAA action.

Talbot was strong in net for the Chargers as UAH kept the Redhawks off the scoreboard when play was even-strengthed.  The junior made 36 saves in the loss while MU's Cody Reichard, the reigning CCHA Player of the Year, made 16 stops for the Redhawks.  Talbot finished the season appearing in 33 games, playing 1961:55 and making 1,041 saves, all three are school record numbers.

With the loss, the Chargers finish the season 12-18-3 and bid farewell to seniors Barker, Blake MacNicol (Milan, Ohio), Kevin Morrison (Mississauga, Ontario), Davide Nicoletti (Toronto),Brandon Roshko (Hamilton, Ontario), Tom Train (Hurst, Texas).  The Chargers set Cole era season marks for wins (12), goals (73),  fewest goals allowed (89), power-play goals (25) and goals-allowed average (2.67).

The one-goal margin was the 18th time in 2009-10 that the Chargers played in a one-goal contest going 8-10.