LEWISTON — In what might be a fitting finale to a league that never really found continuity or conformity, the last College Hockey America hockey game finished with a surprise and little sense of closure for the home team.

Alabama-Huntsville’s Keenan Desmet banged in a power-play goal at 5:27 of overtime as the upstart Chargers defeated host Niagara 3-2, capturing the final CHA Tournament title and earning an automatic berth to the upcoming NCAA Tournament before a crowd of 1,818 stunned fans at Dwyer Arena.

When a tragedy on the Huntsville campus took place in February as a fatal on-campus shooting claimed the lives of three faculty members, the Chargers were in Monteagle Ridge

“We’re obviously really excited. Our university’s been through some tough stuff lately and it’s a good win for the university and the people there,” UAH coach Danton Cole said.

Niagara (12-20-4) threw everything it could at Huntsville goalie and eventual MVP Cameron Talbot, but as he did in Friday’s 1-0 semifinal win over Robert Morris, the junior was scintillating between the pipes for the third-seeded Chargers. Talbot faced 45 shots while his counterpart, sophomore Chris Noonan, only saw 24.

“Not the way we wanted to go out,” Niagara coach Dave Burkholder said. “What are you going to do, but sit here and talk about their goalie? We throw 45 pucks on him and we can’t win. That’s the story of the game.”

Burkholder later lamented what he deemed as a pair of bad calls — one that gave the visiting Chargers the overtime power-play and another that negated a second-period goal.

A slashing call on Jim Burichin led to UAH’s goal, and Burkholder didn’t agree with the

“It’s an overtime call that doesn’t need to be called. It’s a real soft call in overtime,” the coach said.

The overtime winner came as Neil Ruffini’s one-timer was topped by Noonan, but popped right to Desmet, who buried a shot in the corner. The goal as the third with the extra man for UAH (12-17-3).

“That’s just the way we drew it up, eh Talbs? Make 85 saves and we’ll three power-play goals,” Cole joked. “There were some moments where the guys relied a little too much on Talby, but the guys worked real hard. We got on the wrong side of it for a bit in the third as Niagara was really coming, but we gathered our composure and evened it out.”

As for Talbot, a number of scouts were on hand to watch the sophomore goalie, who stopped 44 shots last time Niagara played UAH, an overtime game the visitors won on Feb. 28.

“I don’t know much about him. He didn’t have a great year last year, so he’s kind of out of nowhere, from my perspective, but he’s getting a lot of action,” Burkholder said. “There’s a lot of people here to see him. And he’s a reason they’re dancing.”

After Brennan Barker opened the scoring for Alabama-Huntsville in the second period, senior Chris Moran responded just 20 seconds later when he ripped a perfect shot that beat Talbot on his blocker side.

Later, UAH took the lead again as Cody Campbell converted a great cross-ice feed from Andrew Coburn on the power-play, giving the Chargers their second goal with the extra man. In Friday’s 5-4 upset of No. 8 Bemidji State, the Purple Eagles held the high-powered Beavers scoreless on six power-play chances.

But Marc Zanette tied the game early in the third, atoning for a costly second-period penalty, and setting up the late-game dramatics. The goal, assisted on by Bryan Haczyk and Dan Weiss, was the freshman’s seventh of the season. Weiss, coincidentally, had been knocked out earlier in the contest, when Vince Bruni labeled the freshman defenseman and he was taken to the locker room after stumbling and falling awkwardly while trying to retrieve his stick.

A pair of goals were disallowed in the second, the first when UAH’s Andrew Coburn was ruled to have kicked a puck in that appeared he might have gotten his stick on it, and the second when Niagara’s Giancarlo Iuorio tipped a puck in with a high stick.

UAH will now have a full week off before learning its fate in the NCAA Tournament. Regionals begin on March 26 in Albany; St. Paul, Minn.; Worcester, Mass.; and Fort Wayne, Ind.

But for Burkholder and his Purple Eagles, a perfect ending to the CHA history book didn’t come true.

“We could have really put a stamp on this league. We would have had four championships,” the coach said.

Contact sports editor Tim Schmitt at 282-2311, ext. 2266.