This is the 2020-21 Atlantic Hockey Conference season. This is the conference's 16th season under this name and the conference's 21st season overall.
Membership Changes[]
On November 9th the Rochester Institute of Technology announced the cancellation of all winter sports including men's and women's ice hockey.[1]
Membership[]
| School | Hockey Arena | Location | Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air Force Falcons | Cadet Ice Arena | Colorado Springs, CO | 2,502 |
| American International Yellow Jackets | MassMutual Center | Springfield, MA | 6,679 |
| Army Black Knights | Tate Rink | West Point, NY | 2,648 |
| Bentley Falcons | Bentley Multipurpose Arena | Watertown, MA | 1,200 |
| Canisius Golden Griffins | HarborCenter | Buffalo, NY | 1,800 |
| Holy Cross Crusaders | Hart Center | Worcester, MA | 1,600 |
| Mercyhurst Lakers |
Mercyhurst Ice Center Erie Insurance Arena (Alternate) |
Erie, PA | 1,500 6,833 |
| Niagara Purple Eagles | Dwyer Arena | Lewiston, NY | 1,400 |
| Robert Morris Colonials | Colonials Arena PPG Paints Arena(alternate) |
Neville Island, PA Pittsburgh |
1,200 18,387 |
| RIT Tigers | Gene Polisseni Center | Henrietta, NY | 4,300 |
| RIT (alternate) | Blue Cross Arena | Rochester, NY | 10,556 |
| Sacred Heart Pioneers | Webster Bank Arena | Bridgeport, Connecticut | 8,412 |
| Tournament | HarborCenter | Buffalo, New York | 1,800 |
Standings[]
2020–21 Atlantic Hockey Standings
| ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conference record | Overall record | |||||||||||||||||
| GP | W | L | T | OW | OL | SW | PTS | PT% | GF | GA | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA | ||
| #15 American International †* | 12 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 32 | .889 | 47 | 18 | 19 | 15 | 4 | 0 | 67 | 40 | |
| Army | 15 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 30 | .667 | 42 | 33 | 22 | 15 | 6 | 1 | 71 | 48 | |
| Robert Morris | 15 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 29 | .644 | 58 | 48 | 24 | 15 | 9 | 0 | 85 | 69 | |
| Canisius | 13 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 24 | .615 | 42 | 34 | 17 | 11 | 6 | 0 | 59 | 46 | |
| RIT | 13 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 23 | .590 | 43 | 40 | 20 | 9 | 9 | 2 | 68 | 70 | |
| Sacred Heart | 13 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 20 | .513 | 35 | 38 | 18 | 6 | 10 | 2 | 43 | 59 | |
| Mercyhurst | 16 | 7 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 23 | .479 | 54 | 50 | 21 | 8 | 12 | 1 | 64 | 67 | |
| Bentley | 15 | 4 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 16 | .356 | 35 | 48 | 16 | 5 | 11 | 0 | 42 | 51 | |
| Niagara | 15 | 3 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 15 | .333 | 39 | 53 | 22 | 7 | 12 | 3 | 57 | 70 | |
| Air Force | 13 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 9 | .231 | 32 | 49 | 14 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 35 | 56 | |
| Holy Cross | 12 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | .194 | 22 | 38 | 16 | 4 | 12 | 0 | 30 | 52 | |
| Championship: March 20, 2021 † indicates conference regular season champion * indicates conference tournament champion (Riley Trophy) Rankings: USCHO.com Top 20 Poll | ||||||||||||||||||
Riley Cup Conference Tournament[]
Usual Format[]
All teams qualify. The top 5 seeds earn a bye to the quarterfinals. The 6th place team played the 11th place team and 7-10, 8-9 also being paired off in a best-of-three series. The teams are re-seeded for the best-of-three quarterfinals, with 1 playing 8 and 2-7, 3-6, 4-5 also being paired off in a best-of-three series. The winners advance to the single game semifinals with those winners advancing to the conference championship game. The semifinal and final rounds will be held at the HarborCenter in Buffalo, New York on March 20-21, 2020. The conference tournament champion earns the conference's automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.
Revised Format for 2021[]
All 11 teams will again qualify for the tournament, with the first round being played between eight teams, with five teams getting byes to the second round. From there, eight teams remain for quarterfinals, semis and finals.
One change is that the first round will be single-elimination, unlike best-of-3, as it normally is. The quarterfinal round will stay best-of-3, while the semis and finals will be single games, as usual.
This year, the teams split into divisions, with play only against teams within that division, to help mitigate travel and COVID-19 concerns. It will stay that way for the early rounds of the league's postseason tournament. In the semis, the lower-seeded team from one division will play the higher-seeded team from the other, and vice versa.
The top two teams from each division will receive byes. Then, the best third-place team will also receive a bye, while the other will play Air Force in the first round. Air Force has been the only team not confined to a particular division pod during regular-season play.[2]
Bracket[]
Teams are reseeded for the semifinals
| First round March 8–9 |
Quarterfinals March 12–14 |
Semifinals March 19 |
Championship March 20 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| E1 | American International | — | — | — | E1 | American International | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| E4 | Bentley | 7 | E4 | — | — | — | W5 | Niagara | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| E5 | Air Force | 3 | East Division | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| E2 | Army | 4 | 4*** | — | |||||||||||||||||||||
| E3 | Sacred Heart | 0 | 3 | — | E1 | American International | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| W2 | Canisius | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| W1 | Robert Morris | 3* | 2 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| W4 | Mercyhurst | 2 | W5 | Niagara | 2 | 3** | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| W5 | Niagara | 3 | West Division | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| W2 | Canisius | 5 | 6 | — | E2 | Army | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| W3 | RIT | 2 | 2 | — | W2 | Canisius | 4* | ||||||||||||||||||
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)