When the dust settled on the 2022-23 Atlantic Hockey regular season, no tiebreakers were necessary for determining the final standings/seedings, as each team ended with a unique point total.
The end result:
1. Rochester Institute of Technology
2. American International
3. Sacred Heart
4. Canisius
5. Army West Point
6. Niagara
7. Holy Cross
8. Mercyhurst
9. Bentley
10. Air Force
That means the Atlantic Hockey tournament looks like this:
Quarterfinal Round
Best-of-three series
March 3-5
No. 8 Mercyhurst at No. 1 RIT
No. 7 Holy Cross at No. 2 AIC
No. 6 Niagara at No. 3 Sacred Heart
No. 5 Army West Point at No. 4 Canisius
Semifinal Round
March 10-12
Lowest surviving seed at highest surviving seed
Second-lowest surviving seed at second-highest surviving seed
Championship
March 18
Lowest surviving seed at highest surviving seed
There are major differences in the tournament structure compared to past years:
1. Only the top eight seeds qualify for postseason play.
2. All games will be played on-campus.
3. The semifinals will be a best-of-three series played the week before the championship game instead of a single game played the day before the championship game.
Predictions vs. reality
It’s been a yearly tradition here to take a look at how the coaches and yours truly picked the final standings at the start of the season. The coaches vote in a preseason poll, and I vote in a poll of one to determine USCHO’s picks.
How’d we do?
Observations:
– Air Force had the biggest deviation from expectations, picked to finish third but ending up in 10th.
– RIT, Niagara and Holy Cross finished significantly higher (3-4 places) than they were picked.
– The coaches did a slightly better job than me, off by a total of 22 positions. I was off by 25.
Previewing the quarterfinals
No. 8 Mercyhurst at No. 1 RIT
The Tigers practically went wire-to-wire, and it can be said that RIT won the regular season title way back in November with back-to-back sweeps of Sacred Heart and AIC, the two teams that would chase the Tigers for the rest of the season.
A sweep at Arizona State on Jan 20-21 improved RIT’s record to 17-6-1 and had the Tigers In the conversation for an at-large NCAA bid, But since then, RIT has come down to earth a bit at 5-5, closing out the season with a sweep of last-place Air Force.
The Lakers had a nice streak going before the holidays going 5-1. But since the calendar turned, Mercyhurst is 5-9-1 including a loss to Niagara in the final game of the regular season that kept the Lakers in eighth place.
The teams met twice during the regular season, with RIT winning in regulation and Mercyhurst prevailing in a shootout.
No. 7 Holy Cross at No. 2 AIC
Picked to finish last, Holy Cross briefly held on to the fourth seed before slipping in their final games, suffering a sweep at the hands of Canisius and falling to seventh.
AIC goes into the postseason unbeaten in its past five games, including taking five of six points from Sacred Heart the final weekend of the regular season and vaulting the Yellow Jackets into sole possession of second.
The teams split their two meetings during the regular season.
No. 6 Niagara at No. 3 Sacred Heart
Coming off a sweep of RIT on Feb, 9-11, Niagara was in the hunt for home ice. But the Purple Eagles went 1-3 down the stretch to finish sixth.
Sacred Heart was in second place for most of the season, but was caught and passed by AIC the final weekend of the regular season.
This will be Niagara’s first visit to the Martire Family Arena, which opened in January. The teams split a series at Niagara back in October.
No. 5 Army West Point at No. 4 Canisius
After Holy Cross stumbled down the stretch, the fourth and final home ice spot was Army’s to lose on the final day of the regular season, and unfortunately for the Black Knights, that’s what happened. A 5-4 overtime loss to Bentley opened the door for Canisius, and the Golden Griffins will host.
The Black Knights are hard to sweep, having it happen just twice this season in conference play.
Canisius comes into the postseason 7-2 in its last nine games, and was 2-1-1 this season against Army.
Awards season
It’s almost that time of the year when 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: Max Itagaki, Army West Point
F: Marcus Joughin, Sacred Heart
F: Nicholas Niemo, Bentley
D: John Driscoll, Army West Point
D: Chris Hedden, Air Force
G: Connor Hadley, Bentley
Check back in next time for the all-conference teams.
