Skip to main content

Atlantic Hockey Showdown: Air Force Wins Battle of Goalies, Captures Atlantic Hockey Title


The Air Force Falcons captured the Atlantic Hockey Championship on Saturday night with a 2-1 victory in front of a nearly empty Blue Cross Arena in Rochester New York. This is most likely due to the fact that RIT did not make it to the finals for the first time in two years, RIT had won the past two Atlantic Hockey Championships. Senior Forward Ben Robillard was the only player able to crack Air Force's stingy defense while Junior Forwards Erik Baskin and Jordan Himley. Sophomore Goaltender Shane Starrett had 24 saves on 25 shots for Air Force while Freshman Francis Marotte had 12 saves on 13 shots in the loss for RMU. With the victory, Air Force receives an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament which will be starting next week. The Air Force Falcons will enter the NCAA tournament with a record of 26-9-5 and will play the Western Michigan Broncos in the first round.

Western Michigan will enter this game with a record of 22-15-5 and played Air Force at home in mid-November of this season, tying the Falcons 5-5 before beating them 4-1 on the very next night. The Broncos are led in scoring by forward Matheson Iacopelli who has 20 goals and 16 assists in 39 games played this season.

The Game will be played on Friday March 24th and can be seen on ESPN 3.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

OHL Playoff Roundup: Round #2 Matchups

2016 OHL Champion London Knights Credit London Free Press  I'd like to start off this post by apologizing for not fully covering all of the first round matchup in their entirety, I haven't had the time to finish them off so I will briefly go over all of them right now: The Erie Otters were the first team to advance to the second round by sweeping the Sarnia Sting in four straight games. Peterborough was the next to advance to the second round with their four game sweep of the Niagara Ice Dogs. Sault St. Marie was the next team moving on to the second round of the playoffs with a four games to one victory over the Flint Firebirds. Owen Sound defeated the Kitchener Rangers in their first series four games to one. The Mississauga Steelheads doubled up the Ottawa 67's four games to two in order to move on to the next round of the playoffs. Oshawa won their first round matchup against Sudbury four games to two. Kingston  came away with a four to thre...

Greyhounds' Offense Too much for Rangers, Rangers Fall 6-1

The Greyhounds from Sault Ste. Marie only needed 29 shots on goal to score 6 goals and defeat the Kitchener Rangers by a score of 6-1 in front of home crowd of 3,800 fans. The Greyhounds opened up the scoring halfway into the first period when forward Bobby Macintyre scored on the power play and left-winger Boris Katchouk scored a shorthanded goal, the first of two for Katchouk that would end up being the game winner. Rangers right winger Joseph Garreffa scored their lone goal with 3 minutes left in the game, but it was too little too late at that point. Greyhounds rookie goaltender Matthew Villalta saved 40 of the 41 shots he faced for the victory while Rangers goaltenders Luke Opilka and LukeRichardson combined to save 23 of 29 shots in the loss. This victory pushed the season series between these two teams to 3-1-0 in favor of Sault Ste. Marie and the 5-year series to 12-7-0 in favor of the greyhounds. The Greyhounds next game will take place on the roa...

Atlantic Goes Primetime: Former Mercyhurst Goaltender may Find Himself on Olympic Squad

Credit Elite Prospects  With the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea  less than a year away and NHL still not having any set plans in place for their sending their players to these games, it is looking as if the biggest hockey league in North America will not be participating. This does not come as a huge shock to any around the game as for the past couple Winter Olympics there has been complaints from fans and owners alike that stopping the NHL season right near the end to go and play in international competition was too disruptive to the league and its players. Although this closes the door for any player under NHL contract from playing for any nation in these games, it opens the door for players who might not otherwise get this opportunity. Enter Ryan Zapolski ... Credit Getty Images An Erie, PA native and four year goaltender at Mercyhurst University Zapolski never really found any traction in North American Professional leagues after his graduation. Followin...