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.

Sunday, December 9th, 2018 - 6:59 pm | Atlantic Hockey, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings