WEST CHESTER, Pa. — The UAH club hockey team lost 6-4 on Monday to the No. 2 seed Florida Gators, who erased a 4-1 Charger lead, in the AAU College Hockey national quarterfinals.
UAH finishes the season at 12-12-1. Florida (18-7-0) heads to the semfinals against High Point.
“And the end of the day, we were shorthanded,” UAH head coach Tim Flynn said. “Four games in four days is just too much. We didn’t have what we needed to close it out.
“I’m very proud of the guys, the whole game, all weekend, the whole year, really. It’s been a big step forward for the program and they deserve a lot of credit for that.”
Florida got the quantity of chances in the first period, but it was the Chargers who made most of the quality chances.
Kolton Watts put the Chargers up 1-0 with a rebound goal in the slot with almost 11 minutes remaining, assisted by Henry Hoff and Keaton Watts. It was Kolton’s team-leading fifth goal of the tournament.
Three Florida penalties helped, and UAH capitalized on the last one with 3.5 second left in the period on a Josh Corrow blast from the right point for a 2-0 lead at the first break.
UAH went up 3-0 on a nifty tic-tac-toe play, Josh Corrow to Kolton Watts to Keaton Watts at point-blank range with 16:42 remaining in the second period.
It took Florida’s 28th shot on net to finally get one past goaltender Cameron Crawford with 6:54 left in the second.
But it only took 20 seconds for the Chargers to answer, with Jackson Herman’s drive up the middle through traffic finding the back of the net and putting UAH up 4-1, which was the score at the final intermission.
Then the Gators’ potent offense, which scored 24 times during their three pool games, wore the Chargers down in the third. Parker Mara, who scored Florida’s first goal, got two more for a hat trick in the third period’s first six minute to cut UAH’s lead to 4-3.
Michael McCoy tied the game up with 6:41 remaining, the Michael McKatz gave UF the lead with 2:05 to go. Kegan Lampinen added an empty-netter with 20 seconds remaining for the final of 6-4.
“Full credit to Florida, too. I know they had a stomach bug going through the rink. Not making excuses but our guys played hard and I’m proud of them.”
The Gators finished with a 52-18 shots on goal advantage for the game. Crawford had 47 saves, giving him a total of 139 in three games for the tournament, a .910 save percentage with a shutout.
“That’s exhausting,” Crawford said. “We gave it our all out there. We tried our best to focus on defense and force their shots from outside. It was working there for a good minute against a good offense, but we just got worn down.”
“He’s been awesome,” Flynn said. “All year…every time we’ve needed him he’s been big for us. Today, included. (The loss) was definitely not on him. We just ran out of gas at the wrong time. Very thankful he played this year and helped us make this step.”
Even though this will be Crawford’s only season between the pipes, he wants to keep helping the program moving forward.
“I played four years of college lacrosse (at UAH) before this and this was far and way the most fun I’ve ever had playing a college sport, even if it is club,” Crawford said. “I want to try to stay with the team and maybe coach next year and see what I can do to help out.”
While it was a disappointing end, just reaching the quarterfinals showed the program’s promise of restoring a winning hockey tradition at UAH.
“I think it shows, coming into the tournament, what UAH hockey can be,” Flynn said. “To be that close to moving on to a semifinal, to compete for national championships, that’s what the program is and that what we’re trying to get it back to. Today hurts, but big picture, very proud and we’re going the right way for sure.”