Three things I learned from Atlantic Hockey this weekend:
Sweeps are sweet – I predicted mostly splits this weekend because sweeps in Atlantic Hockey have been hard to come by lately. But this weekend we saw four sweeps and in two other cases, a win and a tie earned. Robert Morris and Rochester Institute of technology earned road sweeps, while Air Force and Mercyhurst got three road points.
West dominates – The east pod had played almost even with the west since the holidays, but things reverted to the early season trend of the western teams dominating the inter-pod match-ups. Western teams were 10-0-2 this past weekend, the last of inter-pod play, and now make up the top five slots in the standings.
Sacred Heart keeps finding new ways to lose – The Pioneers looked like they were on their way to their first conference win of the season on Sunday, leading Canisius 3-1 with 10:05 to play. But the Golden Griffins rallied for three goals during a 2:52 span in the final minutes to win, 4-3. “The last seven or eight minutes, we decided to play team hockey and selfless hockey and we were rewarded for it,” said Canisius head coach Dave Smith. No reward for Sacred Heart, which was swept by Canisius for the first time in almost 13 years.
Getting my vote
Here’s my ballot for Monday’s USCHO.com Division I Men’s poll:
1. Minnesota-Duluth
2. Boston University
3. Notre Dame
4. Minnesota
5. Michigan
6. Boston College
7. Merrimack
8. Colorado College
9. Ohio State
10. Cornell
11. Ferris State
12. Western Michigan
13. Mass-Lowell
14. Denver
15. Union
16. Michigan State
17. Northern Michigan
18. Miami
19. North Dakota
20. Maine
