Meet College Hockey’s Hidden Mid-Major
Image Courtesy: Atlantic Hockey America
Atlantic Hockey America has it all, from one usual annual NCAA tournament bid to small schools and intimate environments
written by James Blennau
To established fans, Atlantic Hockey America is no secret. For those casually tuning into the occasional blue-blood Frozen Four matchup though, there’s much to learn from college hockey’s mid-major. Let’s start simply though, shall we?
What is a mid-major, anyway? Well, in most sports, it’s defined as one existing outside the power conferences (ie Big Ten, ACC, Big 12, SEC, PAC-12 formerly). In hockey’s case, there is no real set of power conferences, with the Hockey East and Big Ten showing dominance but not enough to render other conferences less relevant—all except for one.
With an average enrollment across the conference of about 4,500 students (skewed upwards by RIT’s 14,000+), its member institutions and program histories leave it no short of the definition of a mid-major. The conference boasts only one Frozen Four appearance (RIT) and only recently merged with College Hockey America for women’s play at the start of the 2023-24 season. While it doesn’t exist in a sort of vacuum outside the other conferences, it’s almost an annual occurrence when only one team, the conference tournament champion, sees NCAA tournament ice. In fact, there’s only been one time ever they’ve sent two teams to the tournament with local rivals Canisius and Niagara both seeing the national stage in 2013.
It’s not all doom and gloom for this conference though, as its programs boast passionate fan bases, experienced coaches and teams that fight and claw consistently harder than those playing with higher chances of making the national tournament.
With that, let’s meet the contestants for the Riley Trophy and AHA’s 2025 NCAA tournament auto-bid!
RIT
Image Courtesy: Caroline Sherman, RIT Athletics Communications
2023-24 Record: 27-11-2
Season Finish: AHA Champions, NCAA Regional Semifinalist
2024-25 AHA Poll Projection: 2nd
The Tigers start their 2024-25 season with a target on their backs as the reigning conference champions and holders of the Robert Degregorio Trophy as regular season champions. The championship, however, came with a tax losing star players like forward Cody Laskosky and goaltender Tommy Scarfone to Wisconsin. On the other hand back in Rochester Head Coach Wayne Wilson is hopeful for the youth on his team.
“We're looking for opportunities to move up and grow there and so this is really kind of giving us that opportunity, and it's really a chance to see where some of our players can go up, including three of our freshmen,” Wilson said. “It's important for us that our new people can make contributions right away and we give them those opportunities and they've got to earn those opportunities, but you've got to keep growing as a program every year. I guess you can never let your foot off the gas, and that's how you have to approach it.”
Wilson comes in with a much younger and inexperienced team than last year’s squad, but the opportunity to mold a new crop of players around a system and a conference without worrying about the transfer portal for some time is always beneficial to coaches.
Air Force
Image Courtesy: Trevor Cokley
2023-24 Record: 18-19-1
Season Finish: AHA Quarterfinalists
2024-25 AHA Poll Projection: 7th
Far from the Atlantic Ocean but not as much from their conference’s championship, the Falcons enter this season understanding that recruiting and playing “good” hockey won’t get the job done for them alone.
“The good news is we got a lot of I think a lot of good players. The bad news is that good ain't good enough anymore,” shared Head Coach Frank Serratore. “Today's collegiate landscape in Division I hockey is better than it's ever been. We're producing over a third of the players for the NHL right now.”
College hockey is truly only getting better, and if the floodgates open to CHL recruits and prospects becoming eligible to play, it’ll only be more adjustments for teams like Air Force and Coach Serratore.
AIC
Image Courtesy: MassMutual Center
2023-24 Record: 20-16-4
Season Finish: AHA Runners-up
2024-25 Poll Projection: 4th
The Yellow Jackets may be the most mid-major type team in the entire conference, changing their recruiting strategy not only to match the I in AIC (international) but also to keep up with the American and Canadian talents of power schools like Boston University and Denver.
“We like to go where nobody else is, that's been a good theme for us,” noted Head Coach Eric Lang. With twelve European players on the roster this season alone, the team understands their place and how they can make noise on a national scale. “It's also been two years since we've been in the NCAA tournament and we want to get back to that. We feel like we have a group that is certainly talented enough to get back there, but we're all trying to find our competitive edge not only on the recruiting.”
Canisius
Image Courtesy: Omar Phillips
2023-24 Record: 12-21-4
Season Finish: AHA Quarterfinalist
2024-25 AHA Poll Projection: 8th
The slate has been wiped clean for the Golden Griffins and Head Coach Trevor Large, as they look to replicate the magic of their Cinderella Atlantic Hockey championship run in 2o23.
“We're all in, no wins, no losses, nobody's out of the lineup,” said Large, understanding the importance of an open mind in the early season. “I definitely feel with our current group there's a lot of playing time that's available, so that makes our team very attentive to what our coaching staff is asking for from them. It seems to be a very intense group, so those are good things for what the future holds for us.”
The future could hold anything in such a competitive conference year in and year out. These Golden Griffins are ready to take it one game at a time, understanding the importance of every shift when most times only one tournament bid is on the line.
Holy Cross
Image Courtesy: Paul Baker, Stadium Journey
2023-24 Record: AHA Semifinalist
Season Finish: 21-14-4
2024-25 AHA Poll Projection: Third
Riding the momentum of a successful 2023-24 season, the Crusaders led by Head Coach Bill Riga have their eyes on taking the next big step as a program, and not just with the product on the ice. With their game this season against Quinnipiac moving to the DCU Center in downtown Worcester, thousands more eyes will be on the team in possibly their most difficult non-conference game. “I think part of that is…getting the hockey community at large, involved in making Holy Cross Worcester's program. I think in the past people have kind of drifted to the Boston schools,” said Riga. “For one reason or another, I think bringing it downtown, it's trying to make a statement that we can fill a lot of this building, maybe not all of it.”
Upgrading to an over 12,000 capacity arena from their mere 1,600 seater home arena is quite the jump, but an upset against Quinnipiac in a packed house could just be the catalyst Coach Riga is looking for to build Holy Cross into Worcester’s team and raise the conference’s bar in the process.
Mercyhurst
Image Courtesy: Mercyhurst Athletics
2023-24 Record: 9-22-4
Season Finish: AHA Tournament First Round Exit
2024-25 AHA Poll Projection: 9th
Despite the significant distance between their rinks, the Lakers and Head Coach Rick Gotkin are keeping it simple, letting the play on the ice determine their decisions as they charge for a conference championship. “No one has failed to test yet, no one has been scratched from the lineup, no one's lost the game, and everybody's excited,” Gotkin shared. “We like our group from what we've seen to this point and we're looking forward to a great challenging year of hockey.”
The Lakers will have faced their first true challenge as they take the ice for the first time this season against Bowling Green on October 4th, facing one of the nation’s tightest groups losing and gaining no players in the transfer portal.
Niagara
Image Courtesy: Niagara Athletics
2023-24 Record: 18-18-3
Season Finish: AHA Semifinalists
2024-25 AHA Poll Projection: 6th
No, not the falls, but the Purple Eagles do look to fall no further than their projected standings spot this year only coming up short against eventual champions RIT. The team and Head Coach Jason Lammers understand the importance of drawing attention to his program, which was one of the first points he mentioned to the media.
“I think it helps us all get more credibility in college hockey and then better recruits and so therefore better product on the ice as well,” said Lammers. “We're excited about our group here at Niagara and looking forward to the end of training camp and all of the minutiae that comes with training camp and not being able to play somebody else.” The team will get the minutiae they so desire in their first game vs. Clarkson on Friday.
Robert Morris
Image Courtesy: RMU Athletics
2023-24 Record: 11-25-3
Season Finish: AHA Quarterfinalists
2024-25 Poll Projection: 11th
In their second season since the program’s relaunch, the Colonials have their work cut out for them returning 16 players and adding 13 new between transfers and recruits. Despite their season finish, Head Coach Derek Schooley was proud of what the program showed in its Phoenix campaign.
“In general, I really believe that we took some great strides in the second half of the year. Last year, we had a really enthusiastic opening but then kind of struggled in November, but the second half of the year, we really turned it around,” Schooley said. “We're really excited to advance out of the first round of the playoffs especially get the experience for our young players.”
They also start their season against Bowling Green, this time on the road on October 10th, and have more on their mind this year than just keeping the program afloat.
Army
Image Courtesy: Stadium and Arena Visits
2023-24 Record: 10-23-2
Season Finish: AHA First Round Exit
2024-25 Poll Projection: 10th
The Black Knights are in their final season under head coach Brian Riley, and with an extremely young crop of cadets look to “fight on to victory, for that’s the fearless army way!”
“If we were to play a game tomorrow, we’d probably have 15 or 16 freshmen in our lineup,” Riley mentioned. He also spoke about how it’s “tough to get old” given the opportunities from the transfer portal and players leaving before committing to military service after two years in the program. Time will tell whether this crop can deliver before sending Coach Riley off from West Point, playing to the program standard he’s built over 21 years.
Bentley
Image Courtesy: Bentley Athletics
2023-24 Record: 16-17-2
Season Finish: AHA First-Round Exit
2024-25 Poll Projection: 5th
Another set of Falcons look to achieve and set a higher program standard this season, as a disappointing 2023-24 finish and new class coming to Waltham leave Head Coach Andy Jones to make his first jump in his second season with the team.
“Some of the habits and the details that we want to play with moving forward helped create our identity last year,” Jones remarked. “I gained a tremendous amount of respect for just the challenge of the league itself.”
It’s always a challenge to win the AHA, but it wouldn’t be the first time recently we’ve seen a Cinderella run for the conference championship. If Coach Jones and the Falcons can outplay or outsmart their competition this year, a few goals can change the program’s course.
Sacred Heart
Image Courtesy: SHU Athletics
2023-24 Record: 14-19-3
Season Finish: AHA Quarterfinalists
2024-25 Poll Projection: 1st
Despite the disappointment in Fairfield last season, the Pioneers have lofty expectations for their first full season at Martire Family Arena. One of only likely two teams with a target on their backs this year, the Pioneers must remember to save their best for their best competition.
“Our group, I would say was very disappointed with what happened last year and I'll tell you since guys started coming back this summer there's been an absolute commitment at all levels to get it right,” mentioned Head Coach C.J. Marottolo. “Our leadership groups doing a tremendous job, they're hungry and they're inspired. You know, there's no question looking at this league top to bottom, it's going to be it's going to be a dogfight.”
No questions, but this team may need answers if there is anything short of a conference semifinals appearance, even a championship berth given their status as favorites.
Atlantic Hockey America’s season started Friday when Bowling Green visited Mercyhurst. As soon as the puck dropped in Erie, every team from Colorado Springs to Waltham and Rochester to Allegheny County will have known that the fight for the Degregorio and Riley trophies has begun.
