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

Sunday, December 2nd, 2018 - 5:13 pm | Atlantic Hockey, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings