Home College MERCYHURST COACHES TOP CHOICE FOR 2014-15 SEASON

MERCYHURST COACHES TOP CHOICE FOR 2014-15 SEASON

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WINTHROP Mass. — The Atlantic Hockey Association coaches have voted who they believe will take the
regular season crown for the 2014-15 season. Last year’s regular season champions, Mercyhurst is the top
pick in this years preseason poll. The Lakers collected six (6) first place votes en route to 95 total points.
Last year’s Tournament Champions, Robert Morris was chosen to finish second with 89 points with three
(3) first place votes. Air Force rounds out the top three with 80 points and one (1) first place vote.
Bentley and Niagara are tied for fourth with 69 points. The Purple Eagles collected a single first place vote.
Canisius follows with 52 points, with RIT right behind the Griffs in seventh place with 47 points. Holy
Cross was chosen to finish eighth with 44 points from the coaches. The bottom three in the poll are Sacred
Heart (28); Army (20) and American International (12).
The 2014-15 season opens up on Saturday, October 4 with a pair of exhibition contest. Robert Morris will
host Ryerson at 84 Lumber Arena at 7:05 pm, while RIT will open their new arena, Polisseni Center, against
Brock also at 7:05 pm. There are three more exhibition contests on Sunday, October 5, as Ryerson will take
on Mercyhurst, Brock will face Niagara and Toronto will face-off with Canisius. On Monday, October 6,
Air Force will host McGill.
The following weekend will open regular season action with all eleven institutions in action, with a pair of
conference games. Sacred Heart will travel to West Point and take on Army in one conference match-up,
while Air Force will host Mercyhurst in the other.
The 2015 Atlantic Hockey Tournament will have the top five teams receiving a bye into the Quarterfinal
round with seeds 6-8 hosting seeds 9-11 in a best two-out-of-three weekend series starting Friday, March 6.
The First Round winners will then be re-seeded and travel to the top three seeds, as the fifth seed will
travel to the fourth seed, for a best-two-out-of-three Quarterfinal series, which will begin on Friday, March
13. The four winners will then travel to the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, N.Y. with the highest
remaining seed facing the lowest remaining seed in the first semifinal, with the other two remaining seeds
facing off in the second semifinal on Friday, March 20. The two semifinal winners will then face-off in the
Championship game on Saturday, March 21 with the NCAA automatic berth on the line.
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Janet has been covering women's hockey for over 35 years. Along with a 38 year career in Public Relations and over 40 years photographing sports, she found a passion in women's hockey. Her initial story was on the founding of the Niagara University D1 program, she expanded to collegiate and youth and was active in the founding and promoting of the WNY Girls Varsity Ice Hockey Federation. When Professional Women's Hockey hit the ice she was there, one of the first to release the story in WNY. Along with her husband, Randy, people comment that if there's hockey, the Schultz's are there!