2011 Atlantic Hockey Tournament

The 2011 Atlantic Hockey Tournament took place between March 5 and March 19, 2011.

The regular season champions were the RIT Tigers. This is RIT's fourth regular-season championship since entering the league in 2006–07 and second consecutive year as the top seed in the tournament.

The seeds for the tournament were:
 * 1) RIT Tigers
 * 2) Air Force Falcons
 * 3) Holy Cross Crusaders
 * 4) Niagara Purple Eagles
 * 5) Robert Morris Colonials
 * 6) Connecticut Huskies
 * 7) Mercyhurst Lakers
 * 8) Canisius Golden Griffins
 * 9) Army Black Knights
 * 10) Bentley Falcons
 * 11) Sacred Heart Pioneers
 * 12) American International Yellow Jackets

With two new teams in the league this year, the playoff format was modified. The teams were divided into two "pods", the same east–west division used for scheduling purposes this year. The first-round byes and the first-round match-ups were determined based on seeding within the pods; the teams were then re-seeded as a single conference for subsequent rounds.

Western pod
 * 1) RIT (bye)
 * 2) Air Force (bye)
 * 3) Niagara
 * 4) Robert Morris
 * 5) Mercyhurst
 * 6) Canisius

Eastern pod
 * 1) Holy Cross (bye)
 * 2) UConn (bye)
 * 3) Army
 * 4) Bentley
 * 5) Sacred Heart
 * AIC

First Round
The first round, held on March 5, was used to reduce the field of 12 to a standard bracket of 8 teams. The top two teams in each pod received byes; the #3 and #4 teams in each pod hosted the #6 and #5 teams, respectively, in single-elimination games.

The night was one full of surprises. First and foremost, all four away teams defeated their hosts. If that wasn't enough, three of the four games ended in 6–3 scores, two of them on empty-net goals.

American International at Army
AIC wins its first postseason game since 2007 and will travel to Rochester to face RIT.

Sacred Heart at Bentley
Sacred Heart will fly to Colorado Springs to face Air Force.

Canisius at Niagara
Canisius will face Holy Cross.

Mercyhurst at Robert Morris
Mercyhurst will visit UConn.

Quarterfinals
The teams were reseeded for this round without regard to the scheduling pods.

The quarterfinals were a best-of-three round played at the home rinks of the top four seeds. The games took place on March 11 and 12, with third games (where necessary) on March 13.

American International at RIT
RIT moves on to the first semifinal.

Sacred Heart at Air Force
Air Force will play in the second semifinal.

Canisius at Holy Cross
Holy Cross moves on to the semifinals for the first time since 2006&mdash;the year they won the tournament, made the national tournament, and stunned the hockey world by defeating Minnesota in overtime.

Mercyhurst at Connecticut
Connecticut moves on to the semifinals for the first time since 2007.

Semi-finals
The teams would have been reseeded for this round, if necessary.

Championship weekend is again being held at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, New York. The semifinal games will take place on Friday, March 18, with the winners meeting on Saturday, March 19. There is no consolation game.

The matchups followed the script almost perfectly. It appears the pod system had the desired result: the top two teams from each pod in the semifinals, with each semifinal an east–west matchup.

Connecticut vs RIT
RIT, missing first-line forward Andrew Favot due to a game disqualification penalty in their previous match, found themselves uncharacteristically outshot by a fired-up Connecticut team. Even so, the Tigers managed to chase UConn netminder Garrett Bartus after scoring three times on just ten first-period shots. (The third of those goals was a beauty by senior Sean Murphy, who won a short-handed faceoff in the UConn zone, pushed past the Husky center, and roofed the puck past Bartus for the unassisted shorty.) Matt Grogan played well in relief but the Huskies never managed to tie it up. UConn freshman Cole Schneider got both of his team's goals (depending on whom you ask), but those were the only two to evade Shane Madolora, who made 39 saves for the win.

RIT moves on to their second consecutive AHA championship game.

Holy Cross vs Air Force
Air Force returns to the AHA championship game after a one-year hiatus.

All-Tournament Team
TBD is the Tournament MVP.