Box Score HUNTSVILLE | Max McHugh scored twice, Carmine Guerriero made 31 stops, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville hockey team opened the 2015 calendar year with a 3-2 victory over visiting Alaska Anchorage in WCHA action at Propst Arena at the Von Braun Center Friday night. The Chargers improve to 4-14-3 (3-10-0 WCHA) with the win, while the Seawolves drop to 5-8-4 (2-7-2 WCHA).
 
With the pair of goals, McHugh takes over the WCHA's lead in goals and points among freshmen as he has totaled seven scores and 14 points.
 
McHugh put the Chargers on the board quickly, scoring just under four minutes into the game when Chad Brears fed it to him, allowing him to fire it from the right dot and past Oliver Mantha for the early lead, and the score remained 1-0 in favor of the Chargers until the opening period's final minute when McHugh scored his second of the night.
 
The Seattle, Washington, native's unassisted score came at 19:28 as he shot it from straight out through a crowd in front of the net that screened Mantha, producing a two-goal advantage for the Chargers after 20 minutes.
 
Another early score provided the home team with a 3-0 lead as Cody Marooney pushed it in out of a scrum directly in front at 2:03 of the middle period for his second score of the year.
 
Frank Misuraca and Jeff Vanderlugt earned the assists on the Marooney tally.
 
The visitors proceeded to tighten the affair later on in the second as Scott Allen scored on the power play at 13:13 and Tad Kozun scored at 17:51 to create a 3-2 score in favor of the Chargers going into the second intermission.
 
UAH just missed on three golden opportunities to pad the lead in the second half of the third and also had to weather a late push from the Seawolves who were awarded two power plays in the final 3:30 of the game, but Guerriero made three of his 10 third-period saves in the waning moments to seal the victory for his team.
 
For the game, UAA outshot the Chargers by a 33-20 margin as Jack Prince led the Blue and White with five shots, and the Seawolves attempted 19 additional shots that were blocked by UAH players, led by Graeme Strukoff who blocked six while Brandon Carlson put himself in the way of five shots.
 
The two teams will skate again on Saturday night with the Chargers looking for the series sweep. The puck is slated to drop at 7:07 p.m. in the Rocket City.