Chris Lerch

One game for all the marbles. The longest postseason in college hockey comes to an end on Saturday in Rochester, N.Y. After almost four weeks, the Atlantic Hockey tournament is down to the final two teams: American International and Rochester Institute of Technology. They will play a single game on Saturday in Rochester for the … Read more

We are down to four teams still in contention to host the Riley Cup. Last weekend’s Atlantic Hockey quarterfinals had their share of drama despite all four series ending in sweeps – two for the home teams, two for the underdogs. – Rochester Institute of Technology swept Robert Morris, winning 7-0 and 5-1. The first … Read more

For the past several weeks, it’s been a “next man up” mentality for American International, which has seen a crippling rash of injuries over the final month of the regular season. Key players including Alfred Lindberg (22 points), Brian Kramer (20 points), Alexander Malinowski (20 points), and John Lundy (19 points) all suffered what are … Read more

When the dust settled on the 2023-24 Atlantic Hockey regular season, just one tiebreaker was necessary in determining the final standings/seedings. The result: 1. Rochester Institute of Technology 2. Holy Cross 3. Sacred Heart 4. Air Force 5. American International 6. Bentley 7. Niagara 8. Canisius 9. Mercyhurst 10. Army West Point 11. Robert Morris … Read more

Another season, another playoff format for Atlantic Hockey. Gone is last year’s model which saw only the top eight teams qualify. Now that we’re back to 11 teams, everyone makes it, but the road for seeds six through 11 gets a little trickier. The format is as follows: First Round, March 2 Single elimination No. … Read more

On Jan. 5, Mercyhurst defeated Sacred Heart 7-2, a convincing way to start the 2024 portion of the Lakers’ schedule. Rick Gotkins’ team was 7-9-3 at the time, in the thick of things in the Atlantic Hockey standings. Then the Lakers experienced what Gotkin called a “rut.” It lasted nine games (0-9), finally coming to … Read more

With three weeks to go in the Atlantic Hockey regular season, things are looking up for Robert Morris. Derek Schooley had to build his team back from practically scratch after the school unceremoniously canceled its successful men’s and women’s programs at the end of the 2020-21 season. Schooley brought in 16 freshmen plus a few … Read more

Last season, its second under coach Bill Riga, Holy Cross built towards a strong finish that ultimately led to an appearance in the Atlantic Hockey championship game where the Crusaders fell to Canisius, one win away from the NCAA tournament. This season, the Crusaders wouldn’t be sneaking up on anyone, opening 4-0-1 before hitting a … Read more

There’s typically an adjustment period for rookies in college hockey. Despite being a top contributor on their junior team, newbies often struggle with the speed of the college game and going up against older, more experienced players. But Canisius freshman Matteo Giampa picked up where he left off in juniors. The Virgil, Ont., native scored … Read more

The 2023-24 season has been one of streaks for Niagara. Going into last week’s game against Rochester Institute of Technology, Jason Lammers’ team had a single win in its previous seven games. Just before that, Niagara had won four of five. Lammers is hoping that a 3-1 win over then-No. 18 RIT is the start … Read more

Sometimes in life, and in hockey, you can do everything right and still lose. Air Force, coming off a last-place finish last season, had an improved start to 2023-24, but ran into a scoring slump to close out the first semester on a 1-5-1 stretch that saw the Falcons score a total of eight goals. … Read more

I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season. As we head into the second half of the college hockey season, which Atlantic Hockey players have excelled so far? Here are our midterm awards. Will things change before the league names the actual winners in March? Probably. But these are our picks for the … Read more

This is my final column before the holidays, so in the spirit of the season, let’s take a look at what each team could ask Santa for this Christmas. Air Force: Some WD-40 The Falcons will need to shake off some rust before diving into what should be a challenging tournament after Christmas. Air Force … Read more

Robert Morris coach Derek Schooley says that he’s an impatient person, especially when it comes to coaching. Schooley, who has been in charge of the RMU program since its inception in 2004, had to rebuild it after the school eliminated the men’s and women’s teams at the end of the 2020-21 season. It was a … Read more

“I’m fine. My wife tells me that I’m hard-headed,” reads a text from Sacred Heart coach C.J. Marottolo. The Pioneers’ coach caught a puck to the forehead last Friday in a 4-2 win at Robert Morris. I was watching the game and later texted him to see how he was doing. Marottolo was in good … Read more

It’s been a rough start to the season for Army West Point. Going into last weekend’s series with Canisius, the Black Knights were 0-8 with losses to North Dakota, Union, and Bemidji State as well as to some of Atlantic Hockey’s top teams in Sacred Heart, Rochester Institute of Technology, and archival Air Force. Several … Read more

Sweeps have traditionally been hard to come by in Atlantic Hockey. Before this past week, there was just one so far this season. But we had four last weekend, including Bentley’s pair of regulation wins against Niagara. Friday’s 6-2 victory featured a hat-trick from A.J. Hodges and a pair of goals from Josh Latta. Saturday … Read more

When Mercyhurst defeated Bowling Green 4-3 in overtime last Friday, the school posted on X (formerly Twitter) that the victory was the 600th of coach Rick Gotkin’s career. It turns out that after further review, it was “only” his 599th. “There was a typo on my record,” said Gotkin. “But it doesn’t matter to me. … Read more