2004 Atlantic Hockey men's ice hockey tournament

The 2004 Atlantic Hockey Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the inaugural Atlantic Hockey Men's Ice Hockey Tournament. It was played between March 12 and March 20, 2004. All games were played at the Tate Rink in West Point, New York, the home venue of the Army Black Knights. By winning the tournament, Holy Cross received the Atlantic Hockey Association's automatic bid to the 2004 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, the first appearance in team history.

2004 Atlantic Hockey Men's ice hockey tournament
Dates	March 12–20, 2004
Teams	9
Finals site	Tate Rink West Point, New York
Champions	Holy Cross (1st title)
Winning coach	Paul Pearl[1] (1st title)
MVP	Greg Kealey (Holy Cross)
Atlantic Hockey Men's Ice Hockey Tournaments 2005 →

Format

The tournament featured three rounds of play and a play-in game. All games in the tournament are single-elimination. The play-in game consists of the eighth and ninth seeds competing to decide the final qualifier. In the quarterfinals, the first seed plays the winner of the play-in game while the second and seventh seeds, the third and sixth seeds and the fourth and fifth seeds play to determine who advances to the semifinals. of the four remaining teams, the highest and lowest remaining ranked teams play each other with the other two teams facing one another to determine the championship participants. The tournament champion receives an automatic bid to the 2004 NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey Tournament.

Conference standings

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

2003–04 Atlantic Hockey standings v t e
	Conference								Overall
	GP	W	L	T	PTS	GF	GA		GP	W	L	T	GF	GA
Holy Cross†*	24	17	4	3	37	83	54		36	22	10	4	117	89
Mercyhurst	24	16	7	1	33	105	71		36	20	14	2	145	122
Quinnipiac	24	12	6	6	30	67	53		35	15	14	6	87	87
Sacred Heart	24	12	8	4	28	87	68		36	14	17	5	107	114
Connecticut	24	9	10	5	23	89	86		35	12	16	7	115	127
Canisius	24	9	11	4	22	67	73		34	10	16	8	84	107
Bentley	24	7	13	4	18	55	71		32	9	19	4	79	103
Army	24	6	15	3	15	55	84		33	12	18	3	82	107
American International	24	3	17	4	10	49	97		34	5	25	4	71	138
Championship: Holy Cross † indicates conference regular season champion * indicates conference tournament champion Final rankings: USA Today/American Hockey Magazine Poll Top 15 Poll

Bracket

Teams are reseeded after the Quarterfinals

	Play-In[2] March 12					Quarterfinals March 13					Semifinals March 14					Championship[3] March 20
						1	Holy Cross	5
	8	Army	3			9	American International	0
	9	American International	4								1	Holy Cross	4
											6	Canisius	1
						3	Quinnipiac	0
						6	Canisius	1*
																1	Holy Cross	4
																4	Sacred Heart	0
						2	Mercyhurst	5
						7	Bentley	4
											2	Mercyhurst	2
											4	Sacred Heart	3
						4	Sacred Heart	3
						5	Connecticut	0

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

Play-in

(8) Army vs. (9) American International

March 9[4]	Army		3 – 4		American International	Tate Rink	Recap
(Picone) Jon Boyle - 06:40 (Mayfield, Cruthers) Chris Casey - PP - 08:41		First period			05:47 - Troy Johnston (Walbert, Valdes) 13:28 - Jay Fennessy
No scoring		Second period			10:13 - John Levesque (McConnell, Miller)
(Mayfield, Rudd) Chris Casey - 14:21		Third period			10:10 - GW PP - Guillaume Caron (Walbert)
( 21 saves / 25 shots ) Brad Roberts		Goalie stats			Frank Novello ( 34 saves / 37 shots )

Quarterfinals

(1) Holy Cross vs. (9) American International

March 13[5]	Holy Cross		5 – 0		American International	Tate Rink	Recap
(O'Grady, Kealey) Jeff Dams - GW - 07:03		First period			No scoring
(McGregor, Napert-Frenette) Andrew McKay - 19:46		Second period			No scoring
(Dams) Greg Kealey - PP - 01:09 (Sixsmith) Greg Kealey - 06:43 Matt Conway - 13:14		Third period			No scoring
( 28 saves / 28 shots ) Tony Quesada		Goalie stats			Frank Novello ( 44 saves / 49 shots )

(2) Mercyhurst vs. (7) Bentley

March 13[6]	Mercyhurst		5 – 4		Bentley	Tate Rink	Recap
(Carter, Rynshoven) Adam Tackaberry - 01:41		First period			No scoring
(Hansen, Champagne) T. J. Kemp - 11:31		Second period			03:46 - Paul Markarian (McCartin) 10:24 - Brendan McCartin (Markarian, Lovell) 17:35 - Brendan McCartin (Markarian, Lovell)
(Borrelli, Reynolds) Erik Johnson - 09:24 (Champagne) David Wrigley - EA PP - 15:24 (Wrigley, Kemp) Rich Hansen - GW PP - 16:17		Third period			07:33 - Brendan McCartin (Plattner)
( 14 saves / 17 shots ) Andy Franck / ( 6 saves / 7 shots ) Jordan Wakefield		Goalie stats			Simon St. Pierre ( 26 saves / 31 shots )

(3) Quinnipiac vs. (6) Canisius

March 13[7]	Quinnipiac		0 – 1	OT	Canisius	Tate Rink	Recap
No Scoring		First period			No scoring
No scoring		Second period			No scoring
No scoring		Third period			No scoring
No scoring		First overtime period			01:37 - GW - Justin Carre
( 30 saves / 31 shots ) Jamie Holden		Goalie stats			Bryan Worosz ( 27 saves / 27 shots )

(4) Sacred Heart vs. (5) Connecticut

March 12[8]	Sacred Heart		3 – 0		Connecticut	Tate Rink	Recap
(Billinghurst, Chmiel) Peter Giatrelis - GW PP - 04:19		First period			No scoring
No scoring		Second period			No scoring
(Connerty, Chmiel) William Billinghurst - 11:15 (Molinaro) Garrett Larson - EN - 18:17		Third period			No scoring
( 26 saves / 26 shots ) Kevin LaPointe		Goalie stats			Scott Tomes ( 26 saves / 28 shots )

Semifinals

(1) Holy Cross vs. (6) Canisius

March 14[9]	Holy Cross		4 – 1		Canisius	Tate Rink	Recap
(Bianchi, Kealey) Jeff Dams - 00:31		First period			No scoring
(Walker, Coskren) Jonas Tomiuck - GW PP - 14:48		Second period			No scoring
(Coskren, Dams) Greg Kealey - PP - 10:27 Greg Kealey - EN SH - 18:52		Third period			06:31 - Rob Martin (Corcoran, Cohen)
( 24 saves / 25 shots ) Tony Quesada		Goalie stats			Bryan Worosz ( 21 saves / 24 shots )

(2) Mercyhurst vs. (4) Sacred Heart

March 14[10]	Mercyhurst		2 – 3		Sacred Heart	Northford Ice Pavilion	Recap
No Scoring		First period			14:22 - Pierre-Luc O'Brien (Ferraro, Wright)
Kyle Gourgon - 02:55 (Martin, Reynolds) Erik Johnson - SH - 05:33		Second period			04:06 - Konn Hawkes (Larson, Molinaro) 16:48 - Pierre-Luc O'Brien
No scoring		Third period			No scoring
( 27 saves / 30 shots ) Jordan Wakefield		Goalie stats			Kevin LaPointe ( 22 saves / 24 shots )

Championship

(1) Holy Cross vs. (4) Sacred Heart

March 20[11]	Holy Cross		4 – 0		Sacred Heart	Tate Rink	Recap
(Napert-Frenette) Andrew McKay - GW - 05:06 (Dams, Sixsmith) Greg Kealey - 09:54		First period			(Coskren, Sixsmith) Jeff Dams - PP - 08:15 (Napert-Frenette, Irving) Andrew McKay - PP - 16:15
No scoring		Second period			No scoring
No scoring		Third period			No scoring
( 28 saves / 28 shots ) Tony Quesada		Goalie stats			Kevin LaPointe ( 29 saves / 33 shots )

Tournament awards

All-Tournament Team

• G Tony Quesada (Holy Cross)
• D Konn Hawkes (Sacred Heart)
• D R. J. Irving (Holy Cross)
• F Pierre-Luc O'Brien (Sacred Heart)
• F Greg Kealey* (Holy Cross)
• F Jeff Dams (Holy Cross)

* Most Valuable Player(s)

^[12]

References

1. "Mercyhurst Men's Team History". Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
2. "Atlantic Hockey 2003-04 Week 25". USCHO.com. March 14, 2004. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
3. "Atlantic Hockey 2003-04 Week 26". USCHO.com. March 20, 2004. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
4. "American International 4, Army 3". USCHO.com. March 12, 2004. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
5. "Holy Cross 5, American International 0". USCHO.com. March 14, 2004. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
6. "Mercyhurst 5, Bentley 4". USCHO.com. March 13, 2004. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
7. "Canisius 1, Quinnipiac 4". USCHO.com. March 13, 2004. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
8. "Sacred Heart 3, Connecticut 0". USCHO.com. March 13, 2004. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
9. "Holy Cross 4, Canisius 1". USCHO.com. March 14, 2004. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
10. "Sacred Heart 3, Mercyhurst 2". USCHO.com. March 14, 2004. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
11. "Holy Cross 4, Sacred Heart 0". USCHO.com. March 20, 2004. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
12. "2004 Atlantic Hockey Championship". Inside College Hockey. March 20, 2004. Archived from the original on December 17, 2010. Retrieved June 22, 2013.