Jim Connelly

Is it realistic that the WCHA could have only three NCAA tournament bids this year? That despite the fact that the conference itself has the best overall RPI of the six conferences and has two of the top three teams in the PairWise Rankings? As scary as it may seem, the answer to that question … Read more

I’m definitely a writer who is happy to give the ol’ mea culpa when I screw something up. So I’m here to tip my hat to the UMass Minutemen. On Thursday, I said that I expected Maine to pretty much walk all over them in their best-of-three quarterfinal series. Instead, the Minutemen played in a … Read more

Few pundits gave Northeastern a chance to rebound in its best-of-three quarterfinal series against Boston College after losing on Thursday night, 3-0. For those who did, it took less than a period in Friday’s second game to prove them wrong. Though the Huskies opened the scoring in the second minute of play, that was as … Read more

The storyline was written for an upset at Boston College Thursday night. Game 1 of the Hockey East quarterfinal series between the second-seeded Eagles and No. 7 seed Northeastern saw BC playing with a depleted defensive corps, their top center playing back on defense, and a first line that has been gangbusters for the past … Read more

Okay, so the second Thursday in March is pretty much my Christmas every year. No, it’s not because St. Patrick’s Day is nearing (as a true Irishman, I consider St. Patty’s to be amateur night for drinking). I get jazzed this time of year for college hockey’s post-season to hit it’s stride. This weekend, every … Read more

There was plenty of talk that this weekend’s series between New Hampshire and Boston College didn’t mean anything. The Wildcats had wrapped up the Hockey East regular-season title last weekend and Boston College’s only motivation was to move up to the second spot in the league standings. After Friday night’s 4-1 win for Boston College, … Read more

It’s natural for everyone to be thinking either regular-season standings or worrying about how their team will do in the conference playoffs. What is easy to lose sight of is the extremely cluttered national tournament picture. Right now, the PairWise rankings are as volitile as ever. Some perrenial powerhouses are living day to day on … Read more

Battling for both home ice in the Hockey East tournament and a possible spot in the NCAA field, Vermont knew coming into Friday’s opener of a two-game series at Boston University that it would have to play a near perfect game. Unfortunately, as the Catamounts learned on Friday, sometimes even perfect isn’t good enough. Despite … Read more

Boston College goaltender Cory Schneider earned his 13th career shutout on Thursday night, tying Scott Clemmensen for the all-time Boston College record. Arguably, Thursday’s 3-0 blanking of Massachusetts-Lowell was his easiest of the baker’s dozen, as Schneider faced a River Hawks team whose coach Blaise MacDonald said was comprised of “too many passengers.” The Eagles … Read more

We all love the Cinderella story in sports. Heck, half the reason the NCAA men’s basketball tournament has such great ratings is due to upsets in the tournament’s opening rounds. With that in mind, there seems to be an unusally high number of what I call “land mines” in college hockey this season. Land mines … Read more

It might not have been pretty for Boston University, but Saturday’s 3-3 at home with New Hampshire was a point with which BU head coach Jack Parker was quite happy. “I didn’t think we played nearly as well tonight as we did last night [a 4-2 BU win],” said Parker, whose Terriers overcame a 3-0 … Read more

With two of Hockey East’s top goaltenders in Boston College’s Cory Schneider and Maine’s Ben Bishop squaring off on Friday night, you might wonder if any goals would be scored or if Hockey East was in for yet another scoreless tie. How surprising then is it to know that the pair of duffle bags surrendered … Read more