College Hockey:
Cup? What Cup?

By Chris Lerch • Atlantic Hockey Columnist • Jan. 1, 2012

The New Year’s Edition of three things I learned from Atlantic Hockey play this weekend:

- There is no Catamount Cup. A tournament yes, a trophy…

Catamount Cup champs! If you want to see the trophy you're gonna have to ask Vermont for it #thereisnotrophy #misleadingname

December 30, 2011 6:47 pm via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite

@bmcgows

Brad McGowan

Rochester Institute of Technology knocked off a pair of ranked teams at the Catamount Cup (the tournament). The Tigers defeated No. 11 Ferris State 3-0 on Thursday and then bested No. 16 Lake Superior State 3-1 to win the Cup (the tournament). RIT defenseman Chris Saracino was named the MVP with a goal and two assists. Shane Madolora recorded his eighth career shutout, extending what is already a school record in its Division I era. Sophomore Josh Watson won the second game, his first NCAA victory.

- Three out of ten ain’t bad. The league was just 13-46-8 in non-conference play going into this week, so going 3-7 improved Atlantic Hockey’s winning percentage. All three wins came against ranked teams, with RIT winning the aforementioned pair, and Air Force defeating cross-town rival Colorado College 2-1. Connecticut and Robert Morris also played well against ranked opponents but ultimately come up short with the Colonials falling to Ohio State 4-2 with an empty-net goal and the Huskies dropping the championship game of their tournament 3-2 in overtime.

- Highs and lows come be extreme in a 24 hour period. On Friday night, Air Force won for the first time at the Colorado Springs World Arena, defeating fifth-ranked Colorado College 2-1. But the following evening in front of 2,812 fans at Cadet Arena, Air Force was thumped by No. 15 Denver 7-1. “Last night we showed what we are capable of and tonight showed that we still have some work to do,” said Air Force coach Frank Serratore.

Getting my vote:
Here’s my ballot for this week’s USCHO.com Poll:

1. Minnesota-Duluth
2. Ohio State
3. Notre Dame
4. Minnesota
5. Boston College
6. Merrimack
7. Colorado College
8. Colgate
9. Western Michigan
10. Boston University
11. Denver
12. Mass-Lowell
13. Union
14. Ferris State
15. North Dakota
16. Michigan
17. Yale
18. Lake Superior
19. Michigan State
20. Air Force

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whoop87
Wisco’s streak with Johnson behind the bench is actually at 27-0 against non-WCHA teams. Not sure how you are getting to 82-0.
- Arlan Marttila
  I got to 82-0 by counting all games for UW + Mark Johnson versus everybody but UMD and Minnesota. Thus, games with Bemidji State, Minnesota State, North Dakota, Ohio State, and St. Cloud State were counted.
LtPowers
Come on, man. Air Force gets thumped by DU, while RIT beats Ferris and LSSU, and Air Force still gets your twenty slot?
Powers &8^]
- http://twitter.com/chrislerch Chris Lerch
  Gotta go by the overall record. AFA did beat CC, and they’re still the best team in AHA till Tigers or someone else proves otherwise.
  - Guest
    You know Air force has a history of choking in OT in the NCAA Regionals right? Plus their players won’t see a lick of NHL or AHL ice.
    - RITAnon
      That’s not because they are bad players or incapable of playing at those levels. It’s because they are choosing to go fight and possibly lose their lives in defense of their country.
    - Falcons
      losing to top seeded yale last year in OT was a choke? air force dominated that game. they were the better team. Yale won on a soft goal that took a weird bounce off of Torf. Unless you were there, like i was two rows off the ice, then you dont have a clue.
  - komey
    Air Force also is ranked higher in the RPI and Krach. The only thing RIT has over Air Force is that the Tigers won their only meeting to date.
    - LtPowers
      Head-to-head is pretty important.
http://twitter.com/chrislerch Chris Lerch
I’m not sure taking a top seed to overtime is considered choking. Yale and Vermont were favored to win those games.
Scott
Chris, One more non-conference AHA win Army 3-2 over RPI Friday @ UConn Classic.
Spidermonkey86
Where’s Cornell? You have AF ranked and don’t even have one most well balanced teams on there. Typical homer.
http://twitter.com/chrislerch Chris Lerch
When Cornell beats a good team, I’ll vote for them. Let’s see how they do at CC next weekend. AFA beat CC…will Cornell?