The end of the 2018 calendar year is upon us, and though there are still a few months left in the Atlantic Hockey regular season, it’s interesting to see where teams are at in the standings at this point in season.

Here are the current Atlantic Hockey standings:

1. Air Force
2. AIC
3. Niagara
4. Robert Morris
5. Army
6. Mercyhurst
7. RIT
8. Sacred Heart
9. Canisius
10. Bentley
11. Holy Cross

The only conference action this past weekend saw the AIC Yellow Jackets best the Robert Morris Colonials by a score of 4-3.

Luke Lynch put RMU ahead just 1:51 into the second period, but the lead lasted only minutes as Justin Cole tied the game for AIC. Joel Kocur potted a goal later in the second period, and the Yellow Jackets maintained the lead for the remainder of the period and the initial 7:40 of the third period.

Grant Hebert tied the game for Robert Morris, and the teams continued to exchange goals from there. In the end, Hugo Reinhardt had the game-winner for AIC on a power-play goal with just 3:57 to play. Tobias Fladeby also scored for AIC, while Jacob Coleman had the other goal for Robert Morris, shorthanded.

Zackarias Skog needed to make only 14 saves in the win. Francis Marotte made 24 saves but took the loss.

Elsewhere, Mercyhurst dropped a pair of games to non-conference opponent Ohio State by scores of 3-1 and 5-4.

Ohio State scored twice Friday before the Lakers got on the board with just 58 seconds remaining in regulation, on a goal by Steven Ipri. Ohio State added a power-play goal with two seconds remaining to seal the win. Garrett Metcalf stopped 37 of 40 shots faced in the loss.

It was a closer game on Saturday, with Ohio State narrowly edging Mercyhurst in the final ten minutes of play. The Lakers got on the board first thanks to Geoff Kitt, but Ohio State scored twice in a span of 2:31 to tie, then take the lead.

The Lakers got a pair of goals then, with James Anderson and Steven Ipri scoring early in the second period. But the goals kept coming, with Ohio State re-upping their lead just 21 seconds later.

Taylor Best scored the fourth goal for the Lakers, giving them the lead with under six minutes to play in the second period. That lead lasted for nearly four minutes before Ohio State tied the game. Sasha Larocque had the game-winning goal with 9:26 to play in regulation. Stefano Cantali had 40 saves.

Canisius was in action this past weekend, visiting #14 Union for a pair of games. The Griffs tied Union on Friday in a 2-2 match. Austin Alger opened the scoring for Canisius, who exchanged goals with Union. Jimmy Mazza had the other tally for the Griffs, while Blake Weyrick stopped 40 shots.

The teams re-matched on Saturday, with Canisius dropping a 5-3 decision. Alger had a pair of goals for the Griffs; Mitchell Martan also scored for Canisius. But Union had four straight goals in the first and second periods, including two on special teams, and ultimately, the Griffs were unable to complete the comeback. Matt Ladd made his season debut after being added to the team on December 18; he stopped 28 shots.

Air Force and Bemidji State skated to a 3-3 tie on Saturday. Joe Tyran, Walker Sommer and Kieran Durgan all scored for the Falcons, who went 1-for-4 on the power play. Durgan also registered seven shots on goal, while netminder Billy Christopoulos made 26 saves in 64:39.

Finally, Dartmouth beat Army 5-2. The Golden Knights struck first on a goal by Kevin Dineen, but Dartmouth scored five straight goals throughout the rest of the game in the commanding win. Brendan Soucie had the other goal for Army with 13:29 to play in the third period, but at that point, it was too little, too late.

Jared Dempsey had 11 saves on 15 shots faced, while Matt Penta allowed one goal on seven shots. For Dartmouth, Adrian Clark had 21 saves.

There’s a busy slate of games coming for Atlantic Hockey. First up: Holy Cross visit the USNTDP for a 2 p.m. New Year’s Day matchup.

This coming weekend in conference action, it’s RIT vs. Niagara and Holy Cross vs. Mercyhurst.

Canisius hosts North Dakota for a pair of games; Sacred Heart facing Vermont; Robert Morris facing Brown and St. Cloud State/Union; Air Force facing St. Lawrence University and Vegas, and Army taking on RPI. In addition, Bentley faces Dartmouth and AIC hosts UMass.

There was only one game in Atlantic Hockey this past weekend, but boy, was it a good way – particularly if you’re a fan of the RIT Tigers. The Tigers snapped a five-game losing streak and captured their first win in over a month with an 8-4 victory over the Niagara Purple Eagles on Saturday.

It was a back-and-forth game this past weekend between the Tigers and the Purple Eagles. Jake Hamacher put the Tigers up 1-0 just 1:29 into the game for his first of two goals on the night. RIT would hold that lead until 15:21 into the first period, when Nick Farmer tied it up.

Hamacher regained the lead for RIT just 15 seconds later, but Niagara wouldn’t give up that easily, tying it on a shorthanded tally by Alex Truscott with under two minutes to play in the opening frame.

Andrew Petrucci and Abbott Girduckis scored 1:13 apart early in the second period to put the Tigers up 4-2, but even that lead was only safe for so long. Ludwig Stenlund made it a one-goal game with a power-play goal near the midway point of the game.

From there, it really was RIT’s game to lose. The Tigers scored four goals in the third period, including three empty-netters, en route to the big win. Gabe Valenzuela, Erik Brown, Alden Dupuis and Will Calverley all scored in the final period. Both Dupuis and Calverley scored shorthanded.

Niko Kovachis added a goal for Niagara late in the third, but it wasn’t enough to power the Purple Eagles to a comeback.

Both teams are now done for the calendar year, with Niagara rounding out 2018 on a two-game losing streak. But there’s still plenty of Atlantic Hockey action to come in the final weekend of the year, including a series between Robert Morris and AIC.

There’s also non-conference action to watch for Canisius (Union), Mercyhurst (Ohio State), Air Force (Bemidji State), Army (Dartmouth & Brown) and Bentley (New Hampshire). Holy Cross also takes on the USNTDP on January 1.

Here are the Atlantic Hockey standings:

1. Air Force
2. AIC
3. Niagara
4. Army
5. Mercyhurst
6. Robert Morris
7. RIT
8. Sacred Heart
9. Canisius
10. Bentley
11. Holy Cross

Now that many teams have entered the annual holiday break, we can take a look back at the first half and everything that we have learned about the league. It is clear that power has shifted back to the Greater New Haven area, as Quinnipiac is the undisputed top dog in the and Yale will probably end up right on its heels. The Bobcats picked up a split against upstart Massachusetts over the weekend, while the Bulldogs dropped a lone game to the Minutemen.

QU has had most of the success in non-conference action in recent weeks, as the league’s record against the other conferences has plummeted. With many games still to go in the busy holiday stretch, that can improve and it will be integral for the few teams that have tournament aspirations. In terms of the conference standings, they are starting to take shape with Yale at the top with 13 points and Quinnipiac hot on its trails with 12. The Bobcats have a game in-hand, however, and in a cruel set of circumstances we will have to wait until mid-February before the two teams play in Hamden. Dartmouth, as I have nicknamed Jeckyll and Hyde this year, is in third, while Cornell is in fourth.

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It was the weekend of offenses. Well, only if it was the Notre Dame-Penn State series, which saw 19 goals on the weekend. Most of that came from Saturday’s game whe Penn State score nine goals.

Yes, nine goals. On Notre Dame.

Wisconsin swept Michigan State, which sounds correct. Minnesota and Michigan tied on the first night before the Gophers defeated the Wolverines. 

Penn State’s offense is really good

It’s one thing to score goals and another thing to score goals on Notre Dame and Cale Morris. While I have said before that it’s very difficult to sustain high-scoring offenses for a long time, there’s no question Penn State’s is quite powerful. 

Evan Barratt leads the country with 13 goals and 29 points. Next is Alex Limoges, who has 29 points. The Nittany Lions are averaging 5.29 goals per game — over a goal per game more than the runner-up, Minnesota State. 

The question always remains how good a team’s shooting percentage actually is, though. Because Penn State still leads the country in shots on goal and averages 41.06 shots on goal per game, almost 13 shots more per game than Minnesota State takes. 

Even so, Penn State still ranks second in goals per shots on goal with a 12.9 percent conversion percent. In that department the Nittany Lions trail Minnesota State by less that two percent. 

This is an interesting statistic to keep an eye on, because in previous years Penn State was still shooting and still scoring, but not at nearly as high of a rate. In 2016-17, when Penn State led the country in goals per game with 4.10, they also converted 9.3 percent of their shots on goal. But again, that was for the whole season.

In 2016-17 through Dec. 10, Penn State was averaging 4.87 goals per game and taking 48.27 shots on goal per game. The Nittany Lions converted 10 percent of those shots.

The Badgers are quietly getting better

Between the power of Penn State’s offense, the high expectations for Ohio State, questions about Michigan, a new coaching staff in Minnesota and the return of Cale Morris, other teams in the Big Ten were almost forgotten. Wisconsin was one of those forgotten teams and it’s easy to see why.

The Badgers were a good team with a bright future, but all of that collapsed after 2014. Since then Wisconsin struggled to win, even with high-end talent. Goaltending was supposed to solve any issues, but Kyle Hayton’s arrival last year fixed nothing. 

So this year, no one really knew what to think. But right now the Badgers are tied for first place in the league with Ohio State. They’ve won eight games overall and four in the conference. The Badgers also haven’t lost in their last six games and are on a three-game winning streak. Daniel Lebedeff’s save percentage isn’t great, but it’s above .910, which isn’t bad.

Ohio State is the best team in the Big Ten

It’s strange that the Buckeyes have been using a goaltending tandem, but it seems to be working. Ohio State is tied with Wisconsin for first has played just eight games, two less than the Badgers. Ohio State has just four losses this season and only two in the conference.

The important thing is the Buckeye defense and goaltending is still really good. That’s no surprise since Steve Miller is still there, and the team’s commitment to defense from last year is still there. 

Ohio State has only allowed more than two goals in a conference once this year when it gave up four goals to Penn State. Overall the Buckeyes have surrendered just 13 goals in eight conference games. And Tommy Nappier’s .951 save percentage is second nationally. 

The Sacred Heart Pioneers captured a pair of wins over the RIT Tigers this weekend. Elsewhere, Robert Morris and Holy Cross, and Air Force and Mercyhurst, split their respective series. Niagara then split their weekend with Colgate in non-conference action.

AIC, Army, Canisius and Bentley were all inactive this week.

Mike Lee scored the game-winner for Sacred Heart on Friday, as the Pioneers beat the Tigers 4-3 in overtime. Lee also scored in regulation, while Marcel Godbout and Jason Cotton also scored. Ryan Kruper, Adam Brubacher and Alden Dupuis scored for RIT. Josh Benson made 27 saves in the win.

The Pioneers then took a 6-4 win over the Tigers in the rematch Saturday, powered by a trio of third-period goals. The Tigers took an early lead and went up 2-0 on goals by Brubacher and Shawn Cameron, with both goals coming on the man advantage. Sacred Heart got on the board with a shorthanded goal from Matt Tugnutt later in the first period.

Brubacher scored his second of the night, again on the power play. But the Pioneers scored twice in a span of 2:31, with goals coming from Nick Boyagian and Marc Johnstone, to tie the game before the second period was over. Bryston Traptow regained the lead for the Tigers in the back-and-forth game early in the third, but Ruslan Rakhmatov and Austin McIlmurray scored later in the third, with Matt Tugnutt also adding a goal, for the 6-4 win.

Robert Morris shut out Holy Cross 2-0 on Friday, but the teams flipped positions on Saturday with the Crusaders taking the win. Luke Lynch and Michael Coyne had the goals for the Colonials Friday, with Francis Marotte notching a 36-save shutout.

The next night, Michael Laffin notched both goals for the Crusaders in their 2-0 win. Erik Gordon made 26 saves in the shutout victory.

Elsewhere, Air Force shut out Mercyhurst 2-0 Friday before falling to the Lakers 4-1 Saturday. Kyle Haak and Trevor Stone were credited with goals in Friday’s win, while goaltender Billy Christopoulos made 18 saves in the shutout.

The following night, Joseph Duszak registered a pair of goals in Mercyhurst’s victory. Jeremy Wu and Joshua Lammon also scored, with half of the Lakers goals coming shorthanded. Haak had his second goal of the weekend for the lone goal for the Falcons. Garrett Metcalf made 33 saves.

Finally, the Purple Eagles beat Colgate 4-2 on Friday before falling 2-0 Saturday.

Justin Kendall put Niagara up with 34 seconds remaining in the first period. Colgate tied the game, then took the lead, early in the second period. Johnny Curran tied the game for Niagara late in the second with a power-play goal before Reed Robinson gave the Purple Eagles the edge early in the third. Eric Cooley also added a goal in the win.

Here are the Atlantic Hockey standings:

1. Air Force
2. AIC
3. Niagara
4. Army
5. Mercyhurst
6. Robert Morris
7. Sacred Heart
8. Canisius
9. RIT
10. Bentley
11. Holy Cross

There is only one Atlantic Hockey game next weekend, with RIT hosting Niagara.

After another season of Big Ten play, it’s evident the teams are pretty even. Wisconsin and Penn State split while Ohio State and Minnesota and Michigan State and Michigan almost split — the Buckeyes won a game and tied while Michigan State won a game and tied. Notre Dame swept RPI.

The Buckeyes are now first in the conference with a three-point lead over Notre Dame. Michigan is still fourth, while Penn State – despite its 10 overall wins, which is tied with Notre Dame for first in the conference – is last. But only eight points separate Ohio State and Penn State.

Only the Buckeyes and Fighting Irish have four wins, while every other team in the Big Ten has just two conference wins. The difference between place No. 3 and place No. 7 lies in the ties and shootout wins. 

Can Notre Dame keep up the scoring?

The Fighting Irish quickly took down RPI this weekend. They scored eight goals total, just after I wrote a story about the team trying to fill in for some of its lost scoring from last season. The Fighting Irish really aren’t that far off from where they were at this time last year, but last year they didn’t score eight goals on the Engineers.

Even if Notre Dame wasn’t going to find replacement scoring, I still wouldn’t be worried about the team. Cale Morris is Cale Morris and there is no substitute nor equal to solid goaltending. 

It seems like the Fighting Irish are in a much better spot than last season, and some of the other players who scored last year have been stepping up. But, before last weekend Jeff Jackson did say that the team is still trying to find consistency in its lines. There’s no proof yet that Notre Dame will keep up its scoring.

Offense isn’t sustainable

I spoke to Mel Pearson last week about the team’s goaltending situation. Michigan currently doesn’t have the same level of goaltending — at least when it comes to numbers — as it did last year with Hayden Lavigne’s save percentage. I asked Pearson if he thought the Wolverines can still make a run like they did last year given they have been scoring well of late.

His answer was simple: Not really. Pearson said he wants that goaltending back because offense isn’t the way to win championships. At some point, the offense is going to run out. He said it would for them and it most likely will for Penn State.

I agree. Defense and goaltending does win championships, and there’s no better proof of that than the Big Ten from a few years ago. Pearson was still in the WCHA at the time, but Michigan boasted players like JT Compher and Kyle Connor. It wasn’t enough. Like the other Big Ten teams that year, the Wolverines were stalled pretty early into the NCAA tournament.

It’s still a little early to see who’s going to fare well defensively but it’s worth noting.

The curious case of the goaltending tandems

Right now there are a few teams in the Big Ten that have been using two goaltenders. Most notably is Ohio State. After a great performance last season, Sean Romeo was presumed to be the starter by many. But then came sophomore Tommy Nappier. He played in siz games last season but has been splitting starts with Romeo and has already played in nine.

And he’s doing really well.

Nappier has a .951 save percentage, the second-highest in the country. Of the top-10 goaltenders, only five goaltenders have played in more games than him, and one of those is Cale Morris. Romeo’s save percentage is .912, but the rotation seems to be working for Ohio State. The Buckeyes seem poised to make a return to the NCAA tournament, which poses an interesting question.

Will the Buckeyes end up in the NCAA tournament with a goaltending rotation?

This week in Atlantic Hockey, AIC, Air Force and Mercyhurst all swept their respective series over Holy Cross, RIT and Bentley. Army and Canisius split their series, as did Robert Morris and Sacred Heart. Finally, Niagara dropped a pair of non-conference games.

The Yellow Jackets snagged a 4-3 win over Holy Cross in a mid-week matchup on Tuesday to open their series. Tobias Fladeby scored twice, including the game-winner, while Joel Kocur and Hugo Reinhardt also scored for AIC. Errka Vanska, Ryan Leibold and Neil Robinson scored for the Crusaders. Zackarias Skog registered 13 saves in the win.

AIC then captured a 4-2 win over the Crusaders in the rematch over the weekend. Kyle Stephan, Luka Maver, Blake Christensen and Jared Pike all scored for the Yellow Jackets in their second win of the week. Jack Surowiec and Matt Barry had the goals for Holy Cross. Skog registered 24 saves in his second victory of the week – both of which have helped propel AIC up in the Atlantic Hockey standings, where they now sit second.

Air Force outscored RIT 6-1 over the course of two games this weekend. Although RIT struck first in Friday’s game, the Falcons scored the next three, including one on the man advantage. Kieran Durgan, Evan Feno and Matt Pulver registered goals in Friday’s win, with Dan Willett scoring the lone goal of the weekend for the Tigers.

Feno then added a pair of goals on Saturday, with Evan Giesler also scoring for the Falcons in the 3-0 win. Billy Christopoulos had 48 saves over the course of the two wins, pushing Air Force up to the top of Atlantic Hockey.

Elsewhere, the Lakers nabbed two wins over Bentley, starting with a 5-3 victory Friday powered by a hat trick from Derek Barach. Joshua Lammon and Steven Ipri also scored for the Lakers, who registered a pair of power-play goals. Brendan Hamblet, Drew Callin and Matt Lombardozzi scored in the first period for Bentley, but they couldn’t maintain their momentum and fell.

In the rematch, the Lakers took an early 2-0 lead on two more goals from Barach, but couldn’t hold on Michael Zuffante and Tanner Jago scored on the power-play for Bentley, and it wasn’t until 16:39 of the third period that Mercyhurst would take the lead. Brendan Riley had the game-winning goal for the Lakers.

Army and Canisius split their weekend, with the Black Knights taking a 5-4 win Friday and the Griffs rallying for a 4-2 win Saturday. Daniel Haider, Dominic Franco, Dalton MacAfee, Zach Evancho and Mason Krueger all scored for Army in the win Friday. Nick Hutchison scored a pair for Canisius, while captain Ian Edmondson and Austin Alger also scored.

Dylan McLaughlin had a pair of goals Saturday, while Edmondson and Alger also registered goals. Tucker DeYoung and Trevor Fidler had the goals for Army, but Canisius was powered by a 31-save performance from goaltender Blake Weyrick in the win.

Robert Morris and Sacred Heart split their weekend series. Austin Magera had the game-winning goal for Sacred Heart in Friday’s win; Matt Tugnutt also scored. Saturday’s game required overtime to solve, with Michael Louria notching the game-winner for Robert Morris. Alex Tonge, Jordan Kaplan and Luke Lynch also registered goals over the weekend.

Finally, the Niagara Purple Eagles dropped a pair of games to non-conference for Western Michigan, falling by scores of 3-2 and 7-3. Justin Kendall and Eric Cooley scored for the Purple Eagles, while Noah Delmas had three goals over the course of the weekend.

Here are the Atlantic Hockey standings:

1. Air Force
2. AIC
3. Niagara
4. Army
5. Mercyhurst
6. Robert Morris
7. Canisius
8. RIT
9. Bentley
10. Sacred Heart
11. Holy Cross