Photo Credit: Kelsey Lee-Violet Turtle Phorogrpahy

Now that the field for the Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinals is set, let’s look at one thing that stands out to us about each team still playing.

Bentley Vs AIC

For these Falcons, which team will we see? If the answer is the one before Christmas that swept Army West Point and took two points from AIC, well things could get quite interesting. At their best, these Falcons thrive on speed and taking their opponent out of what they do best. Ryan Soderquist has built a team of speed that has been strengthened by solid goaltending. Evan Debrouwer has shown the ability to get hot at key points this season and has been solid coming from Arizona State. Upfront Cole Kodsi has lead a diverse group of scorers who play with speed to get ahead.

For Eric Lang’s AIC group, as he says “the strength of the team is the team.” AIC makes their living on keeping the game to their structure and script. Score first, and out work your opponent all game. Lang has many players up and down the lineup with skill and the ability to play sound defense. In goal, Jake Kucharski has led the platoon system in the net, and the team has many goal scorers who can rise at any time.

Mercyhurst vs Canisius

This is a match of teams with high end skill. With that said, Canisius is the veteran group who was arguably a bad major penalty against AIC away from making the NCAA tournament last year. Trevor Large has his team playing tough hockey again, with Keaton Mastrodonato leading the way up front. Rick Gotkin has his Mercyhurst group coming in playing their best hockey all year as Kyle McLellan is the hottest goalie in the conference , and the skill for Mercyhurst is leading the way. Gotkin wants players that can score and he has a team full of them. The Lakers are more than capable of hanging with the second-seeded Canisius.

Look for part two with the other two matchups to be published no later than Tuesday.

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