LEWISTON After it was all said and done, their trip was not a waste after all. Neil Ruffini scored just 29 seconds into overtime to give the University of AlabamaHuntsville a 32 College Hockey America overtime victory over Niagara in front of a sparse crowd Sunday in Dwyer Arena. The win salvaged what could have been a disaster for the Chargers, who lost the first two games of this rare threegame series and made their lengthy bus ride home more bearable. "You always want to put teams behind you and eliminate that," Huntsville coach Danton Cole said of Niagara and the CHA standings. "I thought we were a little north face outlet berkeley bit better tonight than we were last night, which is good. The important thing for us is to approach the games in the right way." UAH improved to 691 in College Hockey America action and 10162 overall. More importantly, Sunday's triumph gave them 13 points in the CHA standings, three over fourthplace Niagara. Each club has two league games remaining before the CHA Tournament March 1112. The Purple Eagles are now 4102 in CHA and 9194 overall. Niagara concludes its season with a homeandhome series with CHA rival Robert Morris next weekend. The Purple north face outlets Eagles visit the Colonials on Friday and host them on Saturday. "Both teams make mistakes when they are tired, I guess," Niagara coach Dave Burkholder said of Sunday's somewhat sloppy affair. "We have to tip our hat to their goalie. Sometimes you run into a hot goalie. We threw 43 pucks at him." Huntsville goaltender Cameron Talbot finished with 41 saves, but it was Ruffini who turned out to be the hero for the Chargers. Just 23 seconds into overtime, Ruffini scored the game winner when he barreled to the front of the Purple Eagles net and beat Niagara goaltender Adam Avramenko from close range to give the Chargers a muchneeded victory. "I had a lane to the net, took it, pulled it back and took a shot," said Ruffini, who has seven goals this season. "You never know what is going to happen in overtime, so I took the shot." The Chargers jumped to a 20 lead early in the third period on goals by Ruffini and Tom Train and it looked like Niagara was done. But the Purple Eagles fought back for a tie when Paul Zanette and Jeff Hannan scored goals just 2:41 apart late in the third period. NOTES: Both Talbot and Avramenko started all three games in the threegame series. . Avramenko has started five of Niagara's last six games. . Chris Noonan owns the longest streak this season, starting in eight consecutive games from Dec. 5 through Jan. 1.