Coaches have been telling me all season that Atlantic Hockey is wide open this year, with any team capable of beating any other. This weekend proved that out:
Niagara looked very impressive in a 4-1 win over RIT, continuing their dominance over the Tigers. But the next night, Air Force jumped out to a 5-0 lead on the Purple Eagles and held on to a 7-4 win.
Air Force had tied Canisius 1-1 the night before. The Griffs played another close game against Robert Morris on Saturday, and got the game winner from freshman Kyle Gibbons to defeat the Colonials 3-2 in overtime. It was the seventh time this season Canisius has gone into overtime and the first time it has pulled off a win. The Golden Griffins are now 1-2-4 in those games.
First place Robert Morris had a tough weekend, losing at both Mercyhurst and Canisius. The Colonials have just one win in their last five games after a strong start.
Army opened a long home stand with a three point weekend, defeating AIC 9-3 and then earning a 4-4 tie with Sacred Heart. AIC had no better luck on Saturday, dropping a 5-4 contest at Connecticut.
Holy Cross started strong with a 7-2 win over Sacred Heart on Friday, but Bentley cooled off the Crusaders 5-2 on Saturday. The Falcons were the only AHA team to pick up four points this weekend, as they had defeated UConn on Friday.
Robert Morris came into last weekend with a chance to put some distance between itself and the pack, but came away with no points. After strong showings on Friday, both Holy Cross and Niagara could have moved up with wins on Saturday, but were knocked off. Right now eight of the 12 teams are at or over .500 in league play, and every team has at least one win and at least two losses.
This makes predicting games pretty tough…
How’d I Do?
I went 4-5-2 last weekend for a season total of 32-25-5 (.556).
Guest analyst Matthew O’Donnell did a great job, posting a 7-2-2 record and making me 1-4 this season against my guests.
Drop me an email if you’re interested in kicking me when I’m down.
