The Atlantic Hockey regular season is now in the books, with teams finishing up regular season play this past weekend. Here are the final standings heading into playoffs:

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

Here’s how each team finished out their regular season:

Niagara beat RIT 4-2 on Wednesday thanks to a pair of late goals. Luke Edgerton scored with 1:40 left in regulation to break a 2-2 tie, and Ludwig Stenlund added a goal 1:01 later to make it a 4-2 game. Noah Delmas had the other goals for the Purple Eagles.

Sacred Heart and AIC split their series. The Pioneers won 5-2 on Thursday, but the Yellow Jackets came back for a 4-1 win Saturday. Austin Magera had a pair of goals Thursday, while Jason Cotton, Ruslan Rakhmatov and Nick Boyagian also scored for Sacred Heart. Luka Maver, Tobias Fladeby, Justin Cole and Joel Kocur all scored for AIC in Saturday’s win.

Elsewhere, Holy Cross and Air Force split their weekend series. The Crusaders won 2-1 on Friday, thanks to an overtime goal by Mitch Collett halfway through the extra frame. Trevor Stone (AF) and Michael Laffin had the goals in regulation, just over six minutes apart. Air Force won the rematch, with Walker Sommer, Matt Koch, Joe Tyran and Bradly Tomlak all scoring in the win.

Bentley beat Army 2-1 Friday before tying 3-3 on Saturday. The Falcons got goals from Brendan Hamblet and Will Garin just 4:08 apart to take a 2-0 lead before surrending a goal to Army’s Mason Krueger. The following night, teams exchanged goals en route to the tie. Krueger added a pair of goals, and Dalton MacAfee also scored for Army. Tanner Jago, Ryner Gorowsky & Jonathan Desbiens scored for Bentley.

Robert Morris swept Mercyhurst with wins of 5-4 and 4-3, including the overtime victory on Friday. Friday’s win was a truly back-and-forth affair, with teams exchanging goals largely over the course of the third period. Mercyhurst took a 1-0 lead just 40 seconds into the game and held that lead until early in the third period. Alex Tonge had a hat trick, including the game-winning goal in overtime for the Colonials.

Finally, Canisius topped RIT on Saturday in their season finale 2-1 in overtime. Matt Hoover scored in regulation, with Felix Chamberland notching the game-winner. Erik Brown had the goal for the Tigers.

Stay tuned for playoff information & previews.

Monday, March 4th, 2019 - 2:48 pm | Atlantic Hockey, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings