UAH's Train arrives just in time
Saturday, October 20, 2007
By BUDD McLAUGHLIN
Times Staff Writer budd.mclaughlin@htimes.com  

Sophomore's late goal gives Cole first win as UAHcoach

UAH hockey coach Danton Cole has been working on his team to drive to the net and be aggressive at the offensive end.

And that paid off Friday when Tom Train scored with just 3.5 seconds left to help the Chargers beat Canisius 4-3 in the Mutual of Omaha Stampede. The Chargers will face Nebraska-Omaha in tonight's championship game at 7:05 at the Qwest Center Omaha.

Train's goal came about three minutes after Canisius tied the game on Vinnie Scarsella's second goal of the night.

"(The Chargers) played well in the period," Cole said following his first win as UAH's new hockey coach. "We did a fairly good job of keeping them without a shot.

"Unfortunately, we had a letdown and allowed them to tie the game."

However, the Chargers didn't back down and put the pressure on the Canisius end and goaltender Bryce Luker.

In the final 15 seconds, Train had a shot turned away but he came back hard later and, with the aid of Mike Ward, put a shot past Luker.

"Tommy just drove to the net," Cole said.

"He was aggressive and it paid off."

UAH (1-0) jumped out to a 2-0 lead halfway through the first period on goals by Josh Murray and Tyler Hilbert but the Griffs (0-2-1) countered on the power play at 12:48 to cut the lead to 2-1.

The Chargers had a chance to increase the lead with a five-minute power play but Murray was penalized for hooking about two minutes into the man-advantage, effectively neutralizing the edge for UAH.

Though UAH saw its early lead evaporate only 5 minutes into the second period, Cole said the team didn't let down.

"Those early couple goals helped us," he said. "With a young team, you kind of want something to go right and they saw that they could score on that team."

At 16:45 of the period, the confidence returned when Brennan Barker ripped a snapshot over Luker's pad to give the Chargers a 3-2 lead, setting up the dramatic third period.

Murray, Hilbert and Train each had a goal and an assist on the night to go with Barker's goal.

Sophomore goaltender Blake MacNicol stopped 18 Canisius shots while the Chargers had 27 shots on Luker.

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