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By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer 1:18 AM Saturday, March 27, 2010

OXFORD — The University of Alabama-Huntsville is the last team standing in the College Hockey America conference. In more ways than one.

Alabama-Huntsville, after finishing third out of four teams in the regular-season standings, earned its NCAA berth by beating Niagara 3-2 in the CHA tournament title game.

And the Chargers are the only team in the soon-to-be-disbanded conference that has not been accepted into another league for the 2010-11 season.

“We’re left,” UAH coach Danton Cole said, referring to the fact that Niagara and Robert Morris have been accepted into Atlantic Hockey starting next season and fellow Midwest Regional participant Bemidji State is moving to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. “We’re going to play an independent schedule next year.”

That will make UAH the only independent team in college hockey.

The Chargers applied for admission to the Central Collegiate Hockey Association and were denied — which could provide them with some incentive as they take on Miami, the CCHA’s regular-season champion, in the first round of the NCAA tournament today, March 27.

Cole said the program, meanwhile, will continue its effort to join one of the remaining college hockey conferences.

Nebraska-Omaha, of the CCHA, will join Bemidji State as a new member of the WCHA.

Wanted: improvement

Miami coach Enrico Blasi obviously wasn’t impressed by his team’s third-place showing in last week’s CCHA tournament.

The RedHawks lost decisively to Michigan 5-2 in the semifinals but still managed to salvage the NCAA’s overall top seed by edging Ferris State 2-1 in the consolation contest.

Blasi was asked which aspects of the game his team would focus on during practice leading up to the Midwest Regional.

“We didn’t play very well last week, so pretty much everything,” he said. “But I think our guys have been very resilient over the course of the year.”

Beavers seek repeat

The Bemidji State Beavers won last year’s Midwest Regional and this year made the NCAA field by receiving their first at-large bid on the strength of their 23-9-4 record.

Bemidji State will face Michigan for the first time in program history in today’s second first-round game. The Beavers are much more familiar with the other two Midwest teams, having played seven games against them this season.

The Beavers beat the RedHawks 3-2 on Nov. 27 in the Subway Holiday Classic in Grand Forks, N.D., when Chris McKelvie scored the decisive goal with 3:19 remaining in the third period.

Bemidji State went 5-0-1 against Alabama-Huntsville, but the teams played to a 2-2 tie in their most recent meeting on March 6, and three of their other matchups were decided by one goal, including a pair of 2-1 overtime wins by the Beavers.

Contact this reporter at  (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.

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