One-and-23. Ouch.
Atlantic Hockey has stumbled out of the gate this season, winning just one out of 24 non-league contests over the first two weekends. It certainly leaves a sour taste for a league that would like to make more inroads in terms of visibility and top-talent recruitment.
Remember how Air Force jumped out to a 13-0 start last season? That vaulted the Falcons toward a top-10 ranking and raised the consciousness of the league. This year: 0-4-0.
Rochester Institute of Technology got off to a ho-hum start last season and then turned blazing hot in the second half, again making voters consider the Tigers for top-20 consideration. This year: 0-3-0.
Mercyhurst got off to a horrid start but the Lakers found a solution in goal and started filling up the net on the other end, becoming the second-most prolific scoring team in the nation. This year: neck-and-neck with Air Force at 0-4-0.
Throw in an 0-3-0 for Army and 0-2-0 for Bentley, Connecticut and Holy Cross. Only Canisius (1-3) has managed a victory: a 1-0 shutout of Ferris State securing an opening-weekend split.
Air Force, an NCAA quarterfinal squad last season, traveled to Bemidji State and bowed 3-1 and 7-3 to the Beavers, a Final Four squad. Former CHA partner Alabama-Huntsville visited last weekend and posted a pair of 4-2 victories.
Coach Frank Serratore was not happy but saw some progress in the second UAH meeting.
“In my opinion, the better team won tonight,’’ Serratore said of the Saturday contest. “Last night I thought we shot ourselves in the foot but not tonight. They got the lead and then battled back after losing the lead. They did it without scoring a power-play goal. They did it the old-fashioned way. We took some steps in the right direction this weekend. We scrapped and fought hard. We are a struggling team right now and we just have to go back to work and stick together to get through it.’’
RIT has dropped three close contests. Colgate prevailed 3-2 in an Oct. 10 game played before 7,421 fans at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester. The Tigers headed to the North Country next, falling 3-1 at St. Lawrence (the Saints got an empty net goal) and 5-3 at Clarkson.
The high-flying Tigers – who ranked second in the nation in goals per game last season – have managed just six so far, and the power play has been somewhat anemic at 1-for-13.
“We are doing a lot of good things, but not getting rewarded,’’ RIT coach Wayne Wilson said. “We went into two tough arenas and fired nearly 90 shots in two games. We have come a long way in the last few years. Now we just have to finish our chances and stay positive.’’
Mercyhurst coach Rick Gotkin has always liked the travel miles, it seems. The Lakers headed to Alaska for the second season in a row and came away with a 5-3 loss to Alaska Anchorage and 5-1 setback to Alaska. An eight-game season-opening road trip continued with a lost weekend at Western Michigan as the Broncos prevailed 5-1 and 4-3.
The Lakers flip the compass from west to east the next two weekends with trips to Army and Bentley.
Bentley had a strong showing in a pair of 3-2 losses to No. 20 Northeastern and No. 18 Quinnipiac. Canisius fell to 1-3 with a pair of losses at Lake Superior State, 5-4 and 3-0. The shutout loss snapped a school-record string of 45 consecutive games with a goal.
One good thing about those conference games coming up this weekend: Atlantic Hockey is virtually guaranteed of more than doubling that woeful win total from the first two weeks.
