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  • Atlantic Hockey, Mercyhurst Lakers

    Hi everyone,

    I am wishing to follow some Atlantic Hockey and specifically the Mercyhurst Lakers, so anything posters can contribute will be appreciated as I haven't found too many resources.

    Last I read a couple of years ago now was the amount of scholarships was to go from 12 to 14, which should make for a more competitive grouping. Atlantic hockey does seem to have a lot of teams in the conference, is there plans to realign, add or reduce as eleven (11) teams is an odd number. Did I remember correctly in that Canisius is moving to another conference or am I mistaken on that one?

    For Mercyhurst in particular I see quite a few players have been out of the lineup for what seems to be a very long duration, has it been a bad year for injuries seeing they were to have a lot of seniors playing and instead a few signings took place late in the season.

    Luckily I will be able to follow AH on-line, can someone provide a list of the best rivalries seeing it might be fun to start there and start seeing what AH has to offer.

    Please anything to add I will value as I begin to follow NCAA for the first time.

  • #2
    Re: Atlantic Hockey, Mercyhurst Lakers

    I think the Canisius rumor is an old one. There was a possibility that some of the western Atlantic Hockey teams were going to form a new conference with Bowling Green and maybe Alabama-Huntsville as part of a new CCHA with the realignment 2 years ago. With rumors that Notre Dame may leave Hockey East now that Arizona St is going to go DI leads to speculation about realignment out East. The rumors are the Quinnipiac may be asked to be in Hockey East and Holy Cross or RIT will join ECAC.

    Mercyhurst was a favorite this year in Atlantic Hockey, but injuries eventually took their toll on them.

    As far as rivalries go here are some of the good ones that I know of:
    RIT-Mercyhurst - this goes back years when the Lakers played a DIII schedule
    Army-Air Force - military academies. 'nuff said
    Niagara-Canisius - 2 Buffalo area schools
    Mercyhurst-Canisius - same as RIT-Mercyhurst when they were playing DIII schedules
    RIT-Niagara - a lot of close games
    RIT-Air Force - close games, and when both went to Atlantic Hockey, the two teams were the top of the conference.
    Bentley-Holy Cross - I've heard that is big from reading the Bentley thread.

    Welcome to the boards.
    2006-07 Atlantic Hockey Champions!
    2008-09 Atlantic Hockey Co-Champions!
    2009-10 Atlantic Hockey Champions!
    2010 Frozen Four participant
    2010-11 Atlantic Hockey Champions!

    Member of the infamous Corner Crew

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    • #3
      Re: Atlantic Hockey, Mercyhurst Lakers

      Here is what I have on scholarships, once next season hits then the gap will be narrowing with Atlantic hockey up to 14 scholarships against other conferences having a maximum of 18. At the original 12 scholarships it must have been difficult to have a deep enough line-up to compete in inter-conference play, perhaps when the final 14 comes on-line things will tighten up on that front. Hopefully most teams will take advantage of the upgraded numbers, however there will be cases no doubt where some schools will inevitably not use their maximum allowances.

      Atlantic Hockey Scholarships – NCAA Div 1
      2013/2014 – 12 scholarships
      2014/2015 – 13 scholarships
      2015-2016 – 14 scholarships

      Other NCAA Div 1 – 18 scholarships

      Standing:
      For standings in Atlantic Hockey I see 1 - Robert Morris, 2 - Canisius, 3 - RIT, 4 - Bentley, 5 - Mercyhurst, 6 - Holy Cross, 7 - Air Force, 8 - Sacred Heart, 9 - Army, 10 - American International, 11 - Niagara.

      For play-offs I take it that top five (5) clubs received a bye to the quarter finals, while the remaining six (6) teams play qualifiers in a best of three to determine the remaining three teams to make quarter finals. Quarter finals seem to also be a best of three contest, with semi-finals & finals a single game contest to determine a winner. I dislike a single game playoff game but it is likely due to getting everything fit into the overall schedule.

      I take it the conference winner then advances, with potentially a second team based upon pairwise results?

      I have read that Mercyhurst was slated to do very well this season until injuries caught up to them. Seeing their is no secrecy on the long term injuries at this point anyone know what the general consensus is? I believe the goaltender was a groin, however it seems to have gone on a fairly long time. Anyone know of the other injuries and whether the players may be back for the playoffs?
      Last edited by Ballroomblitz; 03-04-2015, 01:56 PM.

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      • #4
        Re: Atlantic Hockey, Mercyhurst Lakers

        Originally posted by Ballroomblitz View Post
        Hi everyone,

        Luckily I will be able to follow AH on-line, can someone provide a list of the best rivalries seeing it might be fun to start there and start seeing what AH has to offer.

        Please anything to add I will value as I begin to follow NCAA for the first time.
        Well, everybody hates Air Force and whomever is winning the conference at the time.... so there's that!

        And what Komey1 said.
        RIT Tigers

        Got one foot in the crease

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        • #5
          Re: Atlantic Hockey, Mercyhurst Lakers

          Originally posted by Ballroomblitz View Post
          I take it the conference winner then advances, with potentially a second team based upon pairwise results?
          There aren't any Atlantic Hockey teams with a strong enough PWR to make it into the NCAA tournament this season. The only representative will be the AHC tournament winner.
          RIT Tigers

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          • #6
            Re: Atlantic Hockey, Mercyhurst Lakers

            Originally posted by lmg6841 View Post
            There aren't any Atlantic Hockey teams with a strong enough PWR to make it into the NCAA tournament this season. The only representative will be the AHC tournament winner.
            This is, unfortunately, typical of the conference. Only once has the conference ever received an at large bid. The biggest reason is that as a conference, teams have a hard time winning games out of conference.

            No doubt that some teams will use the scholarship increase to their advantage. Some may not. Atlantic Hockey is a conference that is at least partially built on cost containment. There are some that fear that things like increasing scholarship limits might cause some teams to fold and at the very least increase the gap between the "haves" and have-nots" of the conference.
            2006-07 Atlantic Hockey Champions!
            2008-09 Atlantic Hockey Co-Champions!
            2009-10 Atlantic Hockey Champions!
            2010 Frozen Four participant
            2010-11 Atlantic Hockey Champions!

            Member of the infamous Corner Crew

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            • #7
              Re: Atlantic Hockey, Mercyhurst Lakers

              Originally posted by komey1 View Post
              This is, unfortunately, typical of the conference. Only once has the conference ever received an at large bid. The biggest reason is that as a conference, teams have a hard time winning games out of conference.

              No doubt that some teams will use the scholarship increase to their advantage. Some may not. Atlantic Hockey is a conference that is at least partially built on cost containment. There are some that fear that things like increasing scholarship limits might cause some teams to fold and at the very least increase the gap between the "haves" and have-nots" of the conference.
              Who do you believe will take advantage of the increased scholarship numbers??

              Schools likely to take advantage of additional athletic scholarships: list of schools?
              Schools UNLIKELY to take advantage of additional athletic scholarships: list of schools?
              Schools who are not utilizing athletic scholarships due to their unique circumstances: Army, Air Force, other?


              I understand some schools do not offer athletic scholarship similar to IVY league, would Army & Air Force fall into that category?

              If quite a few schools do NOT follow suit I see this conference splitting into two, or some team realigning into other conferences. Most schools would likely wish to remain as a group so that it can grow the sport over time so we’ll have to see how things unravel in the next four or five seasons. An advantage of two conferences would be two teams advance, however it is certainly better to have everyone participate and better the competitiveness.

              Going to research standings over the last five years now to see if I can figure out who are the more consistent programs, and coaches. If players are half the battle, surely coaching is the other half of the formula to success.
              Last edited by Ballroomblitz; 03-05-2015, 02:57 PM.

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              • #8
                Re: Atlantic Hockey, Mercyhurst Lakers

                Bear in mind anything I say about what teams will do is strictly speculation based on my years of following Atlantic Hockey and reading the boards. I have no insider knowledge.

                That being said, here are my answers:
                Mostly likely will use all their scholarships: Mercyhurst, Canisius, Niagara, Robert Morris, Bentley
                Unlikely - AIC, Sacred Heart
                I'm not sure how Air Force and Army handle athletic scholarships.
                RIT is not allowed to offer athletic scholarships as they are a DIII school playing DI. As such, they have to abide by DIII scholarship rules meaning no athletic scholarships. Back in the 80s, the NCAA determined that teams had to play more by certain sets of rules based on this distinction and teams had to choose which level they were going to play (I think this was because the NCAA stopped sponsoring a DII championship). Several schools that are DIII in other sports but DI in hockey were allowed to play by DI rules. Examples of this are Clarkson and St. Lawrence. RIT at the time choose to stay at the DIII level until 2005.
                I'm not sure what Holy Cross will do.

                I'm going to disagree that the conference would split. A key is that you need 6 teams for the conference to be eligible for an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament. There is also scheduling. Most of Atlantic Hockey's out of conference games are on the road. So, there is a need to have numbers in a conference to have a reasonable amount of home games.
                2006-07 Atlantic Hockey Champions!
                2008-09 Atlantic Hockey Co-Champions!
                2009-10 Atlantic Hockey Champions!
                2010 Frozen Four participant
                2010-11 Atlantic Hockey Champions!

                Member of the infamous Corner Crew

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                • #9
                  Re: Atlantic Hockey, Mercyhurst Lakers

                  Originally posted by komey1 View Post
                  I'm not sure how Air Force and Army handle athletic scholarships.
                  Military academy students pay for their educations with a 5-year tour of duty. In other words, all cadets basically get a free ride, so there are no specifically "athletic" scholarships.

                  At least, that's my understanding.


                  Powers &8^]

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                  • #10
                    Re: Atlantic Hockey, Mercyhurst Lakers

                    I hope we didn't scare off the OP. Especially with a big series against Bentley coming up this weekend.
                    2006-07 Atlantic Hockey Champions!
                    2008-09 Atlantic Hockey Co-Champions!
                    2009-10 Atlantic Hockey Champions!
                    2010 Frozen Four participant
                    2010-11 Atlantic Hockey Champions!

                    Member of the infamous Corner Crew

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Atlantic Hockey, Mercyhurst Lakers

                      Originally posted by komey1 View Post
                      I hope we didn't scare off the OP. Especially with a big series against Bentley coming up this weekend.
                      I picked them to take Bentley in three. Based off the lack of chatter on the Bentley thread, I imagine they think so too!
                      RIT Tigers

                      Got one foot in the crease

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by blazer777 View Post
                        I picked them to take Bentley in three. Based off the lack of chatter on the Bentley thread, I imagine they think so too!
                        Bentley is on spring break this week, so attendance will be poor. But, more important, Bentley's play went south the last two weekends of the regular season against two teams near the bottom of the AHA, and their power play, which kept them near the top of the AHA through Drcember, has been non-existent the past two months, so I think that Mercyhurst probably will be taking the series with a sweep.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Atlantic Hockey, Mercyhurst Lakers

                          Originally posted by Snively65 View Post
                          Bentley is on spring break this week, so attendance will be poor. But, more important, Bentley's play went south the last two weekends of the regular season against two teams near the bottom of the AHA, and their power play, which kept them near the top of the AHA through Drcember, has been non-existent the past two months, so I think that Mercyhurst probably will be taking the series with a sweep.
                          Not scared off...lol. Sometimes you need to jump in with both feet, pick a team and follow them over a few years till they make the promised land!

                          I have picked Mercyhurst and over the next few years they will see challenges and will hopefully have some success along the way. This year was to be a positive year by all reports, some injuries have hurt them however play-offs are about who shows up and digs deep.

                          I am also putting together as list of a few specific players from individual teams in the conference and follow their progression. While many follow a specific team only, I tend to enjoy also watching a few individuals across the board since every team has a few standouts with potential.

                          So this play-off run put me down for the Hurst in three!!!

                          Ballroomblitz
                          Last edited by Ballroomblitz; 03-10-2015, 12:53 PM.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Atlantic Hockey, Mercyhurst Lakers

                            Originally posted by Ballroomblitz View Post
                            So this play-off run put me down for the Hurst in three!!!

                            Ballroomblitz
                            As an RIT fan I like Mercyhurst. Mercyhurst has a strong team with ample senior leadership. I think their coach is one of the better coaches in the league. That said I like Bentley in this upcoming series. Both teams are smarting from recent slumps but I think home ice and better goaltending will give Bentley an advantage. Bentley takes two out of three in tightly contested games.
                            RPI Engineers
                            RIT Tigers
                            ARMY Black Knights

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                            • #15
                              Re: Atlantic Hockey, Mercyhurst Lakers

                              Tightly contested and down to the wire, actually took extra time on this night. Let's see what game two offers in this oneā€¦.

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