Three things I learned from following Atlantic Hockey this week:
Playing at home matters. The AHA is only 5-30-4 in non-conference play, but just seven of those 39 games have been played in Atlantic Hockey rinks. In those games, the league is a respectable 2-3-2. So again, that’s 3-27-2 on the road, and 2-3-2 at home. It’s tough for some schools to attract non-league opponents to come into their home rinks. So far, only Niagara, Rochester Institute of Technology, Robert Morris and Army have hosted non-league home games. But eventually, every AHA team except Sacred Heart and American International will host a non-conference game this season.
Who’s Hot: Holy Cross, which defeated No. 7 Boston University on Saturday at Agganis Arena. The Crusaders, who pulled off a huge upset of top-ranked Minnesota in the 2006 NCAA tournament, became the first AHA team to beat BU.
“It’s fantastic for this group of guys because none of these guys were here for Minnesota,” Holy Cross coach Paul Pearl said after the game. “This is a testament to these guys working hard.”
Who’s Not: Coming off an emotional overtime win against St. Lawrence in front over 10,000 fans last Saturday, the Tigers managed to score just one goal in a pair of games last week. A 3-1 loss at Canisius snapped an eight-game winning streak for the Tigers over the Golden Griffins, and on Saturday RIT was pounded 5-0 at home by Union. It was the largest margin of defeat on home ice for the Tigers in 17 years. RIT has yet to score a goal at Frank Ritter Arena in two games so far this season, the first time it has suffered consecutive shutouts at home in the program’s 42-year history.
Tiger coach Wayne Wilson says he isn’t worried…yet. ” “It’s funny how those things work,” he said after Saturday’s game. “The next game could be a big scoring game. We’ve got to work hard to get our goals. We can’t be pretty and hope things happen.”
