When the dust settled on the 2021-22 Atlantic Hockey regular season, we were left with the following seedings for the upcoming AHA tournament:
1. American International
2. Canisius
3. Army West Point
4. Rochester Institute of Technology
5. Sacred Heart
6. Air Force
7. Mercyhurst
8. Niagara
9. Bentley
10. Holy Cross
Army West Point and RIT tied for third in points, but the Black Knights get the higher seed due to a 2-1-1 head-to-head record against the Tigers.
The top six seeds receive a bye into the quarterfinals; the top four will host those quarterfinals.
That means the Atlantic Hockey tournament looks like this:
First Round
Best-of-three series
March 4-6
No. 10 Holy Cross at No. 7 Mercyhurst
No. 9 Bentley at No. 8 Niagara
Quarterfinal Round
Best-of-three series
March 11-13
No. 5 Sacred Heart at No. 4 RIT
No. 6 Air Force at No. 3 Army West Point
Lowest surviving seed from the first round at No. 1 American International
Other surviving seed from the first round at No. 2 Canisius
Championship
March 18-19 at Adirondack Bank Center, Utica, N.Y.
March 18
Semifinals
March 19
Championship
The highest level of drama was supplied by Sacred Heart and Army West Point last Saturday. The Pioneers staged a ferocious comeback to erase a 6-2 Black Knights lead in the third period. Tied at 6-6 and needing a regulation win to have a chance at fourth place and home ice in the quarterfinals, Sacred Heart coach C.J. Marottolo pulled goalie Josh Benson for an extra attacker in the closing minutes.
Neither team scored again in regulation or overtime, and SHU prevailed in the shootout, but it was not enough to lift the Pioneers into fourth place. They’ll travel to RIT for the quarterfinals.
Previewing the first round
Holy Cross at Mercyhurst
This matchup features two of the hottest teams in the conference. The Lakers (12-18-4) have won five of their last six games, including last weekend’s sweep of Canisius.
Holy Cross (12-21-2) is playing its best hockey of the season, with six of its 12 wins this season coming in the final month of the season.
The teams met four times in the regular season, with Mercyhurst holding a 2-1-1 advantage.
Bentley at Niagara
It’s been a tale of two seasons for the Falcons (12-18-2), who were 10-7 in the 2021 portion of the schedule, but 2-11-2 so far in 2022. Bentley is winless in its last 11 games.
Niagara (11-20-3) is winless in its last five outings but is coming off a weekend series with AIC that saw the Purple Eagles take three points from the regular season champs with a shootout victory and an overtime loss. Those points were important because they moved Niagara one point ahead of Bentley in the standings, and that’s why these games are at Niagara as opposed to Bentley.
The teams previously met in early February, with Niagara taking both games.
Awards season
It’s that time of the year where the league hands out awards and announces its all-league and all-rookie teams. We’ll be handing out our kudos as well over our final three columns of the season.
Let’s start with the rookies. He are our picks:
F: Clayton Cosentino, Air Force
F: Shane Ott, Niagara
F: Carter Wilkie, RIT
D: Mitchell Digby, Air Force
D: Luis Linder, AIC
G: Tommy Scarfone, RIT
An honorable mention goes to Army West Point goaltender Gavin Abric, who is technically a sophomore but saw zero action his rookie season, backing up All-American Trevin Kozlowski. Abric won the starting job early this season and has posted a league-best .927 save percentage.
