Men's Hockey | 9/25/2012 10:41:00 AM

ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT men's hockey team was picked to finish tied for fourth in the 2012-13 Atlantic Hockey Association preseason poll, as voted on by the conference's coaches, and announced at the conference's annual media day held at Blue Cross Arena on Tuesday, Sept. 25. This is the 10th season of play in Atlantic Hockey.

Last season's regular season and tournament champions, Air Force, is the top pick in the preseason poll, with eight first place votes and 112 total points. The Falcons have won five of the last six AHA Championships.

Niagara was selected second by the coaches, as the Purple Eagles collected three first place votes and totaled 101 points. Mercyhurst follows in third with 89 points, while Bentley and RIT tied for fourth with 87 points.  Holy Cross rounds out the top six with 74 points. Bentley and RIT battled in a tremendous three-game playoff series last season, with RIT out-lasting the Falcons, 3-0 in the decisive game. RIT then defeated Niagara, 2-1 in overtime in the AHA semifinal, before bowing out to Air Force, 4-0 in the league championship game.

RIT returns 16 players from last season's squad, including 2012 leading scorer and All-AHA second team selection Mike Colavecchia (Maple, Ontario/Lindsay Muskies), along with 2011 All-AHA second team selection, defenseman Chris Saracino (St. Louis, MO/Green Bay Gamblers), a two-year captain.  Up front, senior Adam Hartley (West Vancouver, British Columbia/Surrey Eagles) and junior Adam Mitchell (Crofton, MD/Baystate Breakers) will be looked upon to lead the way offensively, while junior Greg Noyes (Lucan, Ontario/Salmon Arm Silverbacks) was among the AHA scoring leaders as a defenseman. In net, junior Josh Watson (Lititz, PA/Powell River Kings) and sophomore Jordan Ruby (Tavistock, Ontario/Wellington Dukes) will vie for the starting nod.

"We always want to get better every day as the season moves on, and with us tied for fourth in the preseason, we have something to improve on right away," said RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson, the 2010 Spencer Penrose Award winner as Division I coach of the Year. "Our goals remain the same, as we want to win as many non-conference games as we can, get home ice advantage for the AHA playoffs, and most importantly, win our conference championship, and get to the NCAA Tournament."

The bottom half of the standings sees Connecticut in seventh with 65 points, Robert Morris in eighth with 61 points and the final first place vote, Canisius in ninth with 38 points and Army tenth with 30 points, American International was picked 11th with 20 points and rounding out the 2012-13 preseason poll is Sacred Heart in 12th with 19 points.

RIT is in the Western pod and will play Mercyhurst, Air Force, Robert Morris, Niagara, and Canisius three times apiece this season. The Tigers will play two games each against Eastern pod teams Sacred Heart, Holy Cross, Army, Bentley, Connecticut, and Sacred Heart.

"Our league continues to get better, and the difference from top to bottom continues to get smaller and smaller from year to year," said Wilson. “We were two points out of first place and just three ahead of the seventh place team, so every point is extremely important.”

The 2013 Atlantic Hockey Tournament will feature the same format as last year. This year the top four teams receive a bye into the Quarterfinal round with seeds 5-8 hosting seeds 9-12 in a best two-out-of-three weekend series starting Friday, March 8. The First Round winners will then be re-seeded and travel to the top four seeds for a best-two-out-of-three Quarterfinal series, which will begin on Friday, March 15. 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 22. The two semifinal winners will then face-off in the Championship game on Saturday, March 23 with the NCAA automatic berth on the line.

RIT opens the season with an exhibition contest against the University of Ottawa of Canada on Saturday, October 6 at 7:05 p.m. The Tigers open the regular season with a pair of games at No. 3 Michigan on Thursday, October 11 and Friday, October 12. On Saturday, October 20, the Tigers host Penn State University at Blue Cross Arena for Brick City Homecoming and Family Weekend at 7:35 p.m. The Tigers have drawn a sellout crowd of 10,556 fans at Blue Cross Arena in each of the last two years and hope to duplicate that attendance this season.

This is the second lowest that RIT has been projected to finish since being selected to finish eighth in its inaugural AHA season, 2006-07. RIT was chosen first in 2007-08, 2010-11, and 2011-12, and third in both 2008-09, and 2009-10. RIT won the regular season title in all three seasons they were not picked to finish first.

RIT has won four of the last six AHA regular season titles and have made three straight trips to the AHA Championship game. In 2010, RIT won its first AHA postseason title, parlaying that success into an historic run to the NCAA Tournament, where they advanced to the Frozen Four.

The Atlantic Hockey Association arose on June 30, 2003, to found a new Division-I men's ice hockey conference. The league is comprised of twelve members: Air Force Academy, American International College, Army, Bentley University, Canisius College, University of Connecticut, College of the Holy Cross, Mercyhurst University, Niagara University, Robert Morris University, Rochester Institute of Technology ,and Sacred Heart University.

2012-13 Atlantic Hockey Association Preseason Coaches Poll
1. Air Force (8) - 112
2. Niagara (3) - 101
3. Mercyhurst - 89
4. RIT - 87
4. Bentley - 87
6. Holy Cross - 74
7. Connecticut - 65
8. Robert Morris (1) - 61
9. Canisius - 39
10. Army - 30
11. American International - 20
12. Sacred Heart - 19
(First Place votes)