Weekend Preview: Weekend Features Final Meetings
League's Top Offense, Defense, Meet in Home-Home Series
Weekend Preview (PDF)

With only five league games on the docket this weekend, the members of Atlantic Hockey will need to make the most of their opportunities as they jockey for position in the Atlantic Hockey standings. Predicting a favorite entering an Atlantic Hockey contest has given many prognosticators fits over the past few weeks, and expect the trend to continue this weekend with an action-packed weekend.

Army and Sacred Heart will meet in a home-home series slated to begin Friday night in Milford, Conn. While both squads sit in very different positions in the Atlantic Hockey standings, the two contests will showcase the league’s best - the Pioneers boast the top offense in the league, averaging 3.58 goals per game, while the Black Knights occupy first place when it comes to defense, allowing on average 2.33 goals per outing.

The two teams met in the first Atlantic Hockey contest of the season all the way back on October 16, a decision that went the way of Sacred Heart after the Pioneers reeled off four straight goals before the Black Knights could respond late in the third period, a 4-1 victory. Sacred Heart is looking for a little consistency in its pursuit of Holy Cross in first place. The Pioneers are 2-3-1 in their last six Atlantic Hockey outings, most recently falling victim to Connecticut on Tuesday, 5-3.

Bentley and American International will compete in the other home-home series of the weekend, squaring off Friday night in Springfield. Although both teams are located in the bottom half of the Atlantic Hockey standings, a four-point weekend for either team may prove to be the difference come March. A win for Bentley either night gives the Falcons the season series, after they defeated the Yellow Jackets in early December, 5-2.

The only other Atlantic Hockey game this weekend was scheduled to be a home-home series, however Friday night’s matchup between Quinnipiac and Holy Cross has been moved to February 12 at the FleetCenter in Boston, part of a doubleheader that will feature two Atlantic Hockey contests, the other being Bentley and Connecticut. The Crusaders will meet the Bobcats only once this weekend, Saturday night at Quinnipiac.

The Bobcats will be looking for some measure of revenge over the Crusaders in this second meeting of the season between the two squads. Quinnipiac held two separate leads over Holy Cross on December 5, but a late third-period goal by Tyler McGregor knotted the contest at three, sending the tilt into the extra session. It was then that Pierre Napert-Frenette sealed matters with only fifteen seconds remaining, giving Holy Cross a 4-3 win at home. A win for Holy Cross secures the Crusaders another week atop the Atlantic Hockey standings alone, while two points for the Bobcats will help them to keep pace with the leaders.

Connecticut comes off a Tuesday night victory over Sacred Heart and continues intrastate play when the Huskies travel to Yale. UConn has faced the Bulldogs once in each of the last two seasons, and although the Huskies hold a 0-4-0 record against their Ivy League foe, the Huskies haven’t lost by more than two goals to Yale in each of their last three meetings. Also on tap this weekend, Canisius takes a break from league play for a set against the US Under-18 team, beginning Friday night in Buffalo. The Griffs come off another exciting victory over regional rival Mercyhurst on Tuesday, 3-2.