Another week in Atlantic Hockey is done and some things have stayed the same while other have changed. Niagara, surprise surprise, swept Sacred Heart and are now clear of second place Holy Cross by four points. The Purple Eagles are clearly the team to beat and I have a feeling it’s going to be a while until someone beats them. They ride the nation’s longest unbeaten streak at 11 games, going 9-0-2 during that time. The Purple Eagles are one of just two teams in the country not to lose a conference game yet this year. The other being Quinnipiac of the ECAC. This week saw the Purple Eagle rise to No. 18 in the USCHO rankings.

Army continues to have their best season in quite awhile. They swept Bentley and AIC this week and sit in third place, just three points behind Holy Cross. The Black Knights were picked to finish 10th in the preseason coaches poll. They are the surprise of the Atlantic Hockey season so far. Let’s see if they can keep this going the whole season.

Last night saw a matchup of two underperforming teams in Atlantic Hockey. Air Force defeated RIT 3-2 in overtime in a matchup of two teams expected to compete for the Atlantic Hockey title. And it was an ugly affair. RIT was called for 42 penalty minutes while Air Force was only whistled for four.

“There’s a reason why they are in the standings where they are at, and there’s a reason we are in the standings where we are at,” said Air Force coach Frank Serratore after the game.

The two teams sit near of the bottom of the Atlantic Hockey standings and have a long climb to get back into contention. You can see more of his postgame comments here. It is once again an entertaining postgame interview with Serratore.

Serratore also revealed that George Michalke is leaving the Air Force Academy to deal with the injury he suffered when he was hit from behind by Canisius’ Matthew Grazen.

Monday, December 3rd, 2012 - 7:03 pm | Atlantic Hockey