Jim Connelly

Well, a wild weekend of conference tournament hockey is finally behind us and the resultant is this year’s 16-team NCAA tournament field. Once again, the PairWise Rankings correctly predicted the tournament field. Over the years, I’ve noticed that the general public’s knowledge and understanding of the PairWise has certainly cut down on the griping after … Read more

To become one of the hottest teams in college hockey, skill, discipline and solid play will help get you there. So will a little puck luck. Boston College, riding the backs of two picture perfect four-on-four markers along with two fortuitous bounces that turned into goals, jumped out to a 4-0 lead early and held … Read more

After fans at the TD BankNorth Garden were forced to wait until double overtime to learn the outcome in the early semifinal, Boston College decided to take any suspense out of the tournament’s nightcap. Led by multiple-point performances by five different players, BC opened a four-goal lead through two periods and knocked Hockey East Goaltender … Read more

I just wanted to make a short post here to correct an inconsistency in what I’ve reported over the past few days about Maine’s bonus points. The Black Bears indeed will have bonus points tacked onto their RPI for two road wins at North Dakota, but Maine’s season opening win against Minnesota will not accrue … Read more

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