State of the Atlantic

ACHA Hockey ACHA M3 Hockey
1

The first few weeks of the season has been pretty eventful with some big cross-conference matchups and some great in-conference games having been played. There are a few things that I am excited to see play out, and a few harsh realities that are quickly emerging…

Exciting to See:
1.Parity… The gap between the have’s and have not’s has gotten smaller as teams have added some nice players and built decent inter-conference schedules. The emergence of Delaware and George Mason, along with the great starts by UPJ and PSU Behrend, is sure to make the battle for the top 10 more interesting as perennial teams like Rowan, Southern Connecticut, Fredonia look to do what they always do.

  1. New England and Fordham…This new influx of New England teams and Fordham is going to be interesting with computer rankings because they don’t play many games out of their conference with the exception of a few crossover games (Fordham playing in the Classic). This is going to create some issues like in the Pacific region, where teams go 10-0 against teams that aren’t as strong as the region standard and the computer thinks they’re Boston College. Mark my words some better than .500% team from the Atlantic, with a strong schedule, is getting bumped by a New England or Fordham team that hasn’t crossed over nearly as much.

  2. The Shifting Tides… Have teams improved enough to upset the defending champs in each conference? I’m curious to see if UPJ, Fredonia or PSU Behrend can dethrone CAL in the CHE. I am curious to see who takes Bryn Athyn’s place at the top of the DVCHC. I’m really curious to see if Fairfield or Quinnipiac (prior to yesterday) can take on Farmingdale in the Empire. Conference play is so important to growing the game, it appears that it’s going to be very competitive in most conferences this year.

The Harsh Reality:

  1. Farmingdale…Yikes… I know its early, but unless there is an act of God or they mail one in (penalties, hot goalie, the flu), which is very possible, nobody has the roster to beat them. CAL and Fairfield are the cream of the crop and I can’t wait to see how this plays out but based upon l how things are shaping up, I’d pretty much say there are only 3 teams fighting for 2 spots.

  2. Football Scores… Computer rankings are going to bring out a strategic awareness that margin of victory increases the value of a win, so teams better prepare for the potential football scores that are going to happen in lopsided games.

Let’s get some chatter going…

2

I think it is still too early to start jumping into your harsh reality. Farmingdale yes has a very strong roster, but it is still to early to tell how many teams are in contention of the top two spots. Not sure what happened with Farmingdale and QU but looking at the scoresheet, QU had half their roster. This weekend should be interesting with Farmingdale and Fairifield squaring off. Fairfield has a solid team, they just have to figure out how to put the puck in the net. It would be nice to have the teams in the Empire play more games with the likes of Rowan and CAL U.
I agree that these teams dropping down are going to have an interesting effect with the computer rankings this year. It’s nice to have a better New England presence in D3, but they made the move so late it was hard for them to get games. I think some of the teams have games scheduled with some of the top teams from last year, so hopefully that allows for appropriate rankings.

3

Let’s see the game between Farmingdale and Fairfield before anyone begins to jump to conclusions.