BUFFALO, N.Y. — To those of you wishing to figure out what Atlantic Hockey is all about this season, best of luck.
For the record, Canisius did enter Saturday’s game against American International College in first place — and resembled it — in a 6-1 victory at HarborCenter.
In the big picture, the conference has been wildly unforeseeable. For instance, Air Force was predicted to finish first in the coaches’ poll and was in 10th place out of 11 clubs heading into this weekend. On the other hand, Niagara was picked dead last and entered this weekend in second place. Going into Saturday night’s action, five points separated the top seven teams.
“I think it is pretty normal; there is always fluctuation,” said Canisius coach Trevor Large, whose club improved to 11-5-0 in conference play and 11-9-2 overall. “What is different this year is that the teams who were picked at the top, there is a flip. There are also some teams that have had a lot of injuries. It is a parity league. You have to outwork teams every night or you will lose. If you are not ready to go, you are going to lose.”
AIC coach Eric Lang agreed there has been turbulence this season.
“You know what? When it comes to coaches’ polls, my daughter and I did it,” Lang said. “That’s how I did the coaches’ poll this year. It doesn’t mean a darn thing. At the end of the day, they (Canisius) are a really good team. We think we are really a good team. I think every night is independent of itself, and you have to be ready to play, or you will come up short no matter who you play.”
Grant Meyer, Nick Hutchison, and defenseman Cameron Heath each had two goals for the Griffs.
On this night at least, the first-place team defeated a club in the middle of the pack. The Golden Griffins, who had not won since being ranked in early December, scored early, in the middle, and late in the first period to decide this game quickly.
Meyer started things off quickly when he jammed in a rebound past AIC goaltender Stefano Durante just 55 seconds into the game to give the Griffs a 1-0 lead. Then Hutchison took Jimmy Mazza’s slick pass from the left point down to the outside of the right faceoff circle, where he whistled a one-timer past Durante to put Canisius up 2-0 at 9:55.
Before the period was over, Heath jammed the puck in among chaos in front of Durante with 1:41 left in the period, and that was the ball game.
“The start was important,” said Large. “They had more energy than we did last night, and it was really important that we establish where we wanted to play, and we wanted to play in their end.”
While Canisius rocketed to start the game, the Yellow Jackets looked like they were skating in quicksand.
“We knew they would have a big push; they were regular season champs last year,” said Lang. “They are a good team, and we knew they were going to come. When you are down one zip, early, it seemed like we never recovered from that. Good teams have to recover there.”
AIC briefly got back in the game at 1:59 of the third when Johno May’s shot from the point went through a crowd of players past Canisius goaltender Daniel Urbani to make it a 3-1 game.
Any comeback hopes were throttled when Heath scored his second of the night, giving the Griffs some insurance when he scored at 4:35 of the third for a 4-1 Canisius lead. Meyer then scored his second for a 5-1 Canisius lead before Hutchison notched his second.
“It felt good, but the win felt better,” said Heath of his two goals.
NOTES: Durante earned Atlantic Hockey goaltender of the week for his performance against Holy Cross last weekend; he also entered this weekend sixth nationally in goals-against average. … The Yellow Jackets play five of their next seven on the road. … Canisius was ranked ninth nationally in power play percentage so far this season. … The Griffs only have five home games remaining, while AIC only has three.
