March 16, 2023
by Anthony Travalgia/CHN Reporter (@A_Travalgia)
For the first time since 2018 the Atlantic Hockey championship won’t feature American International. The Yellow Jackets were eliminated in the first round by Holy Cross.
The Crusaders, however, will take AIC’s place after continuing their Cinderella run with a second-round upset of top-seeded RIT.
Joining Holy Cross in the final will be Canisius, which needed three games to defeat Army in the first round and three games again in the semifinal round to end crosstown rival Niagara’s season.
“It’s going to be a great hockey game. Any championship game has two teams that are hot. They’re obviously playing very well, we’re playing very well,” Canisius coach Trevor Large said. “It’s going to be two teams that are playing extremely well, going toe-to-toe in a championship game and we couldn’t be more excited.”
Holy Cross finds itself in the final for the first time since 2006, where it earned the right to play in the NCAA Tournament after defeating Bentley. The Crusaders went on to upset Minnesota in the opening round before falling to North Dakota in the Regional final.
“At this time of year, we’re just happy to have another weekend, happy to be together as a team for another week and have a chance to extend that even further,” Holy Cross coach Bill Riga said. “It’s been like this for a while, kind of fighting for our next day.”
Canisius’ trip to the final will be the program’s third, winning the tournament back in 2013, its lone appearance in the NCAAs.
“You never know how playoffs are going to go,” Large said. “The conference has a lot of parity, anybody can beat anybody.”
With Atlantic Hockey moving away from an all-in playoff format to one where eight of the conference’s 10 schools qualify, league points were at a premium, especially as the season rolled along.
Canisius entered February ninth in the conference, just outside the playoff bubble. A 5-3 start to February sent Canisius to the conference’s final weekend of the season with a chance to earn itself the fourth seed and home-ice in the first round.
Standing in the way: Holy Cross, which also had an opportunity at the fourth seed and the same advantage of home-ice in the first round.
“That weekend we had two games and each individual game could have gotten us home-ice in the…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at College Hockey News from CHN…