Visors and Risers

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

Past Atlantic Conference Champions (Credit Wikipedia) Semifinal Results:  #1 Canisius Vs. #4 RMU The RMU Colonials used a three goal third period and a hat-trick from Junior Forward Brady Ferguson to beat the #1 overall seed Canisius 6-2 on Friday night. Look for Ferguson to play a deciding roll in the Championship game. #2 Air Force Vs. #3 Army Air Force rode a shutout performance from Sophomore Goaltender Shane Starett  (29 saves) to beat Army 1-0 and punch their ticket to the championship game. Junior Forward Ben Kucera  scored the game winner at the midpoint of the second period. Starett will need to have a great game in order for Air Force to be able to keep with RMU's high powered offense. Championship Game: #2 Air Force Vs. #4 RMU  Season Series: These two teams split their two game regular season series when Air Force visited RMU, with Air Force winning the first game 6-2 but losing 2-1 on the very next night. Championship History:  RMU has the most rece

The Sudbury Wolves used three unanswered goals in the 3 rd period to dispatch the Battalion from North Bay in front of a home crowd of 4,266 fans. North Bay forwards Adam Thilander and Daniil Verity scored goals sandwiched between a single Sudbury goal heading into the second period. The Wolves would then go on to score the games final four goals to take the game and help their playoff seeding. Sudbury was led offensively by Forward DmitrySokolov (3 goals, 1 assist) and Patrick Sanvido (1 goal) and rookie goaltender Jake McGrath stopped 27 of 29 shots for the win. North Bay goaltender JullianSime stopped 37 of 41 shots in the loss and the Battalion were outshot 42-29 in the game. Even with the win, Sudbury still lost the season series against this North Bay team going 3-3-1 against them this year. North Bay has already been eliminated from playoff contention this season but Sudbury still has a chance at either the 6 th , 7 th , or 8 th seed to make the p

Thursday March 16, 2017  Memorial Gardens, North Bay Ontario  North Bay Battalion (23-35-6, 9th in the Eastern Conference)    Vs.  Sudbury Wolves (24-32-7, 7th in Eastern Conference)  Credit www.thesudburystar.com With less than 10 regular season games remaining for both of these teams and a playoff spot on the line this is one of the most important remaining regular season games left. With the top 8 teams making the playoffs from the Eastern Conference both teams are still thoroughly in the mix as North Bay is only 2 points behind the 8th seed Niagara Ice Dogs and 3 points behind the Wolves. Sudbury is currently 2 points behind the 6th seed Ottawa 67's with one game in hand. North Bay:  Brett McKenzie (Vancouver 2016 7th round pick, #194 overall) - 260 games over 4 seasons in the OHL all with North Bay - Taken #10 overall in the 1st round of the 2013 OHL draft by North Bay - Career highs in goals (28) assists (37) and points (65) this season Cam Dineen (A

"Canisius Wins 2013 Championship" Courtesy Canisius Athletics Round #2 Recap:  #7 Mercyhurst (1) Vs. #3 Army (2)  The Army Black Knights barely avoided one of the largest upsets of the tournament thus far by beating the Mercyhurst Lakers in a very close 3 game series 2 games to 1. On Friday night Army exploded with 6 goals to take game #1 6-4, the Golden Knights were lead by freshman forward Brendan Soucie with 2 goals. In game #2 it took overtime but Mercyhurst was able to pull out the victory and extend their visit to West Point for another day with a 3-2 overtime victory, Sophomore Forward Matthew Whittaker  led Mercyhurst with two goals including the overtime winner. On Sunday night Army managed to sneak away with a 4-3 victory after being down 3-1 in the 2nd period.  #8 Bentley (0) Vs. #2 Air Force (2) Air Force won the battle of the Falcons this weekend by sweeping Bentley 2 games to nothing to advance to Rochester. In game #1 Air Force scored 3 goals i