What a weekend it was in Atlantic Hockey. The standings keep getting tighter and tighter, with eight teams within five points of first. You can even expand that to nine teams with a shot at at the top, if you include Canisius just eight points out.

Air Force – The Falcons have struggled since the start of the New Year. They are winless in four games and culminated with the Falcons first home loss of the season to Bentley on Saturday. Jason Torf received his first start since Oct. 8 and played well, surrendering just two goals. But the Falcons couldn’t muster any offense. Brad McBride recorded his first career assist on one of the Falcons three goals. Kyle De Laurell scored his conference leading 14th goal of the year while Cole Gunner added his 16th assist to also lead the conference.

AIC – The Yellow Jackets returned from a month off and went 1-2 in their three games. Their lone win, though, came against Atlantic Hockey leaders Mercyhurst. Adam Pleskach had three goals and an assist in the three games to extend his point streak to eight games. Nielsson Arcibal goes one better than Pleskach, extending his point streak to nine games with a goal and four assists. Blake Peake had the best week of his AIC career. The sophomore had a goal and four assists in the three games. He had just three points on the season entering the week.

Army – The Black Knights had another long weekend as they were swept by Niagara. The Black Knights have now lost four straight and six straight conference games. Marcel Alvarez scored his second goal of the season for the Black Knights lone tally on the weekend.  Ryan Leets and Rod Tadazak continue to split starts in net, with Tadazak having the better showing this weekend giving up three goals. Leets surrendered five.

Bentley – The Falcons haven’t lost in six straight Atlantic Hockey games. Their only loss during this stretch was a non-conference game at Yale. And with a win and tie at Air Force, the Falcons propelled themselves to sixth place in the standings, just four points behind Mercyhurst. Brett Gensler had a goal and two assists and Alex Grieve added two goals to help the Falcons continue their surge. Grieve is riding a four game point streak where he has scored a goal in three of the four games. Gensler has recorded at least one point in the last seven games for the Falcons and is not just three points shy of tying his total from last season.

Canisius – The Golden Griffins started the New Year with a sweep of Army but couldn’t carry the momentum as they were swept by UConn. The Golden Griffins have won just two of their last eight Atlantic Hockey contests. After losing one of their first seven Atlantic Hockey games, things have gone downhill fast for the Golden Griffins. In both games, the Golden Griffins fell behind 2-0 early and had to fight back. They were able to to do that Sunday and even managed to take the lead. But they couldn’t hold it.  Dan Morrison started both games, getting pulled on Saturday after allowing four goals and then allowed four more and Sunday.

UConn – The Huskies are rolling. They’ve four straight overall and five straight Atlantic Hockey games. The Huskies scored 10 goals this weekend, including six on Saturday. Those six goals were scored by six different Huskies. Cole Schneider led the Huskies with three goals and an assist, including the game-tying and game-winning goals on Sunday. Schneider has recorded at least one point in four straight games, a stretch that includes six goals. Miles Winter added two goals and an assist. His four goals this year tie his career high, set last season. Ryan Tyson scored his first career goal to start the scoring on Saturday.

Holy Cross – The Crusaders split a pair of games with Robert Morris and fell to seventh in the standings. Eric Vos scored three of the Crusaders four goals on the weekend and now leads the team with 10. He has also scored in three straight games. Matt Clune had the Crusaders other goal. Mike Daly added two assists to tie his career high of 15. In his game of the season, Derek Kump recorded his first career shutout on Saturday.

Mercyhurst – The Lakers lost for just the second time in the last 10 games. Even with the weekend split with AIC, the Lakers still maintained their grasp on first place in the standings with a two point edge. Jordan Tibbett picked up his first career win his first start this year. He gave up only two goals late in the game after the Lakers were well on their way to victory. Kevin Nobile had three assists to tie his career high points while Nardo Nagtzaam added a goal and two assists.  Patrick Goebel scored his first two goals of the season on the weekend. He has now recorded at least one point in four straight games.

Niagara – After being swept by UConn, the Purple Eagles responded with a sweep of their own as they took both games from Army. Marc Zanette scored twice and added an assist. The two goals gives him a new career high of eight goals on the season. Scott Arnold added his team leading ninth goal of the season and added an assist the next night. It’s the first time since October that Arnold has recorded points on back-to-back nights. Chris Noona started both games and recorded his third shutout of the season.

Robert Morris – A weekend split with Holy Cross leaves the Colonials in a three-way tie with Air Force and UConn for third place in the standings. The Colonials needed a Cody Crichton goal 30 seconds into overtime to get a 4-3 win. Cody Wydo scored twice and Josh Jones accounted for the rest of the scorers. Crichton has set career highs in goals (4) and points (17). Wydo leads the Colonials with 11 goals and has three multi-goal games on the season.

RIT – The Tigers have won five of their last six Atlantic Hockey games and sit just two points out of first place. The Tigers swept Sacred Heart with a pair of shutouts. Michael Colavechia led the way for the Tigers, scoring four goals and adding an assist. Colavecchia highlighted Saturday’s game with his first career hat trick and set career highs in goals (10) and points (20) this season. In all, seven Tigers recorded multiple points this weekend. The two shutouts for Shane Madolora brings his total to five on the season, tied for second in the nation.

Sacred Heart – Not a lot went right for the Pioneers who saw their losing streak stretch to eight games. They surrendered 13 goals to RIT and scored zero. The Pioneers were outshot in both games, including 48-20 on Saturday. The Pioneers also went 0-14 on the powerplay.

Monday, January 16th, 2012 - 7:32 pm | Atlantic Hockey