When the dust settled on the 2023-24 Atlantic Hockey regular season, just one tiebreaker was necessary in determining the final standings/seedings.
The result:
1. Rochester Institute of Technology
2. Holy Cross
3. Sacred Heart
4. Air Force
5. American International
6. Bentley
7. Niagara
8. Canisius
9. Mercyhurst
10. Army West Point
11. Robert Morris
A tiebreaker was necessary to seed Bentley and Niagara, as they each finished with 41 points. Bentley is the higher seed thanks to a sweep of Niagara on Nov. 10-11.
That means the 2024 Atlantic Hockey tournament looks like this:
First Round
Single elimination
March 2
#11 Robert Morris at #6 Bentley
#10 Army West Point at #7 Niagara
#9 Mercyhurst at #8 Canisius
Quarterfinal Round
Best-of-three series
March 8-10
Lowest surviving seed at No. 1 RIT
Second lost surviving seed at No. 2 Holy Cross
Third lowest surviving seed at No. 3 Sacred Heart
No. 5 AIC at No. 4 Air Force
Semifinal Round
Best-of-three series
March 15-17
Lowest surviving seed at highest surviving seed
Second-lowest surviving seed at second-highest surviving seed
Championship
Single elimination
March 23
Lowest surviving seed at highest surviving seed
Predictions vs. reality
It’s been a yearly tradition here to take a look at how the coaches and yours truly picked the final standings at the start of the season. The coaches vote in a preseason poll, and I vote in a poll of one to determine USCHO’s picks.
Observations:
Last season, Air Force was the consensus third-place pick; the Falcons ended up 10th. This season, Air Force was picked to finish eighth and ended up fourth.
The largest discrepancy this time was Bentley. Picked by the coaches and myself to finish 11th, the Falcons ended up sixth and a point out of a first-round bye.
Previewing the First Round
Anything can happen in a single-elimination game, and one or more upsets in this round wouldn’t be shocking.
No. 11 Robert Morris at No. 6 Bentley
On paper, Bentley holds the advantage, coming into the postseason with the lowest goals allowed per game (2.29) in the conference. The Colonials’ offense is last in the league, averaging 2.47 goals per game.
It may come down to which goalie plays better. RMU has veteran Chad Veltri, who recently passed the 3,500 career save mark, moving into third all-time in the AHA behind Ben Meisner with 3,684 and Holy Cross’ Matt Ginn (3,587). Francis Boisvert has also seen action down the stretch for the Colonials.
Bentley counters with the tandem of Conner Hasley and Nicholas Grabko, who are second and fourth, respectively in the league in goals allowed.
The teams split in their only two meetings this season.
No. 10 Army West Point at No. 7 Niagara
The Black Knights have allowed the second-most goals in men’s Division I hockey this season but have also turned in some quality defensive efforts.
The magic number for Army is three goals allowed. The Black Knights are 10-2-2 when allowing three goals or less, and 0-19 when allowing more than three.
This mirrors Niagara, which is 12-0-2 when scoring four goals or more.
The Purple Eagles can point to a three-game season sweep of archival Canisius as a success story from this season but would like to add a long playoff run as well.
This is the first-ever postseason meeting between the schools. The teams split their two-game series in the regular season.
No. 9 Mercyhurst at No. 8 Canisius
This is the 109th meeting between the schools. The Lakers come into the postseason with the knowledge that they can beat the top teams in the conference, chalking up wins against RIT, Sacred Heart, and Air Force. Mercyhurst has seen better results as of late after a miserable 0-9 stretch from January to early February.
Canisius, the defending champion, has quality wins as well, posting victories against Holy Cross, AIC, and Air Force (2x) but has struggled to keep the puck out of the net at times. The Golden Griffins are scoring at about the same rate as last season (2.76 goals per game) but have allowed 0.7 goals more per game this season. Canisius’ main defensive weapon from last season’s championship run, goaltender Jacob Barczewski , transferred to Michigan at the end of last season.
Like the other two first-round games, the combatants split their single series this season.
