2009 Atlantic Hockey Tournament
# 2009 Atlantic Hockey Tournament

The 2009 Atlantic Hockey Tournament was the 6th Atlantic Hockey Tournament played between March 7 and March 21, 2009, at campus locations and at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, New York. Air Force won their third consecutive Atlantic Hockey Men's Ice Hockey Tournament and received Atlantic Hockey's automatic bid to the 2009 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.

## Format

The tournament features four rounds of play. In the first round, the seventh and tenth seeds and eighth and ninth seeds play a single game with the winner advancing to the quarterfinals. There, the first seed and lowest ranked first round winner, the second seed and highest ranked first round winner, the third and sixth seeds, and the fourth and fifth seeds play a best-of-three series, with the winner advancing to the semifinals. In the semifinals, the highest and lowest seeds and second highest and second lowest seeds play a single-game, with the winner advancing to the championship game and the loser advancing to the third place game. The tournament champion received an automatic bid to the 2009 NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey Tournament.

### Regular season standings

Note: GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; PTS = Points; GF = Goals For; GA = Goals Against

2008–09 Atlantic Hockey standingsvte :

| | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | GP | W | L | T | PTS | GF | GA | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA |
| #14 Air Force†* | 28 | 20 | 6 | 2 | 42 | 105 | 61 | 41 | 28 | 11 | 2 | 148 | 86 |
| RIT† | 28 | 20 | 6 | 2 | 42 | 112 | 73 | 38 | 23 | 13 | 2 | 148 | 117 |
| Mercyhurst | 28 | 17 | 8 | 3 | 37 | 117 | 73 | 40 | 22 | 15 | 3 | 155 | 119 |
| Bentley | 28 | 15 | 11 | 2 | 32 | 91 | 76 | 38 | 19 | 17 | 2 | 116 | 116 |
| Canisius | 28 | 12 | 12 | 4 | 28 | 86 | 80 | 37 | 15 | 16 | 6 | 114 | 111 |
| Army | 28 | 10 | 12 | 6 | 26 | 77 | 91 | 36 | 11 | 19 | 6 | 92 | 125 |
| Holy Cross | 28 | 10 | 15 | 3 | 23 | 73 | 87 | 38 | 13 | 20 | 5 | 106 | 130 |
| Sacred Heart | 28 | 9 | 16 | 3 | 21 | 83 | 107 | 38 | 11 | 23 | 4 | 99 | 147 |
| Connecticut | 28 | 8 | 18 | 2 | 18 | 74 | 107 | 37 | 9 | 26 | 2 | 89 | 142 |
| American International | 28 | 5 | 22 | 1 | 11 | 53 | 116 | 35 | 5 | 28 | 2 | 58 | 141 |
| Championship: Air Force † indicates conference regular season co-champion * indicates conference tournament champion Final rankings: USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Top 15 Poll |||||||||||||||

## Bracket

| First round March 7 | First round March 7 | First round March 7 | Quarterfinals March 13–15 | Quarterfinals March 13–15 | Quarterfinals March 13–15 | Quarterfinals March 13–15 | Quarterfinals March 13–15 | Semifinals March 20 | Semifinals March 20 | Semifinals March 20 | Championship March 21 | Championship March 21 | Championship March 21 |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | | | 1 | Air Force | 4 | 1 | 8 | | | | | | |
| 7 | Holy Cross | 1* | 8 | Sacred Heart | 3 | 4 | 1 | | | | | | |
| 10 | American International | 0 | | | | | | 1 | Air Force | 3 | | | |
| | | | | | | | | 4 | Bentley | 0 | | | |
| | | | 2 | RIT | 3 | 6 | 9 | | | | | | |
| | | | 7 | Holy Cross | 5 | 4 | 5 | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | 1 | Air Force | 2 |
| | | | | | | | | | | | 3 | Mercyhurst | 0 |
| | | | 3 | Mercyhurst | 6 | 5 | — | | | | | | |
| 8 | Sacred Heart | 4 | 6 | Army | 2 | 0 | — | | | | | | |
| 9 | Connecticut | 2 | | | | | | 2 | RIT | 4 | | | |
| | | | | | | | | 3 | Mercyhurst | 5* | | | |
| | | | 4 | Bentley | 6 | 3 | 4 | | | | | | |
| | | | 5 | Canisius | 3 | 7 | 2 | | | | | | |

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

### Quarterfinals

**(1) Air Force vs. (8) Sacred Heart**

* Air Force won series 2–1

**(2) RIT vs. (7) Holy Cross**

* RIT won series 2–1

**(3) Mercyhurst vs. (6) Army**

* Mercyhurst won series 2–0

**(4) Bentley vs. (5) Canisius**

* Bentley won series 2–1

## Tournament awards

### All-Tournament Team

* G Andrew Volkening (Air Force)
* D Gregg Flynn (Air Force)
* D Scott Mathis (Air Force)
* F Cameron Burt (RIT)
* F Matt Fairchild* (Air Force)
* F Scott Pitt (Mercyhurst)
* Most Valuable Player(s)
