The Chargers took the Eagles down hard throughout, eventually leaving three players -- two Eagles and one Charger -- out of the game and Niagara's Thomas Clayton with 25 stitches after being hit in the head in the first period without a penalty.

In the first period, both goaltenders held their own, allowing no shots past despite many loose pucks in front of the Charger goal that freshman goalie Mark Byrne defended with fast hands.

However, Byrne could not keep out the power of Isherwood. On a rebound from a shot at the Eagle goal, Gardner passed the puck out to Mikko Sivonen. Sivonen then passed it to Isherwood, who took off on a straightaway towards the goal, shooting for the first score of the game.

Ten minutes later, Isherwood would score the second goal of the game during a power play by picking up a loose puck from Chris Mackenzie and Timo Makela.

"Whenever Mike Isherwood scores a goal, it's a guaranteed victory, so he scored a couple of goals and I knew we would win," joked Gardner.

As the penalties started adding up, the referees started taking more active measures to keep the players from fighting. Four minutes after the first goal, Niagara's Scott McDonald was thrown out of the game for hitting from behind. The team and Niagara head coach Blaise MacDonald were in objection to the penalty, and a two-minute bench minor was given to the Eagles as well.

"We were obviously displeased with their call, after having one of our kids having his head taken off and receive 25 stitches in his face, and there was no call there," said MacDonald.

Then, in the third period, Isherwood and Charger Ron Baker were thrown out of the game for misconduct. "I disagree with it," said Isherwood. "I hit the guy, he didn't like the way I hit him, so he pretty much chased me up the ice and he just grabbed me. The ref, I think, was just trying to keep things intact so he just decided to kick us out to send a message to the other players."

The last two goals were scored in the third period. The first was by Kyle Martin, with assists from MacKenzie and Makela on a power play. John Heffernan scored the last goal with assists from Randy Harris and Chris Sebastian.

At that point, Charger coach Doug Ross changed goalies to senior Steve Briere, who kept the Eagles off the board for the rest of the game.

Ross was not displeased with the turnout of the game. "I though we put together a real solid first and second period and was not ashamed at all at the way the guys played -- they played real solid hockey."

"We're acclimating to Division I right now. We did not play a very strong Division I schedule last year. We're still growing as a team; it's going to take us the first half of the season to do that. I expect to be playing a lot better in January."

And January will be the next time the two teams face each other, at Alabama's home rink. Next weekend Niagara will be staying home and hosting Bemidji, while the Chargers host their own home game with Wayne State as their guests.

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