Jim Connelly

Three days worth of some great games has yielded a very familiar Frozen Four of Boston College, Maine, North Dakota and Michigan State. The Spartans, who upset Notre Dame in Saturday’s Midwest Regional final, are the only newcomers from last year’s field (Michigan State, of course, takes the place of defending champion Wisconsin). I guess … Read more

A high-flying offense coupled with a defense that limited quality chances and relied on its goaltender when necessary was the perfect formula for second-seeded Boston College to overtake the pesky and physical fourth seed, Miami, 4-0, in Sunday’s Northeast Regional championship. The victory earns the Eagle seniors their third trip to the Frozen Four in … Read more

After a day and a half of upsets and near-upsets in the 2007 NCAA tournament, No. 2 seed Boston College finally restored order, skating to a 4-1 victory over No. 3 St. Lawrence in the second game of the Northeast Regional. Though the game didn’t require any dramatic comebacks or overtimes for the higher seed … Read more

Saturday’s second regional semifinal in Manchester is an interesting battle of two totally opposite clubs. Boston College features a senior class that has been to three straight NCAA tournaments and two Frozen Fours. St. Lawrence, having not been in the tournament since 2001, doesn’t have a single game of experience among its players, though head … Read more

New Hampshire coach Dick Umile is not only happy to have his Wildcats team in this year’s NCAA tournament, but he’s also excited by the personalities that surround him. In addition to the BC coaching staff that Umile knows well, he also has long-time friend Joe Marsh, head coach of St. Lawrence, in the Manchester … Read more

As much as I’d love to be able to provide in-depth blog coverage from all of the regional tournaments this weekend, unfortunately cloning has made the advances I’d hoped at this point and thus you’ll have to settle on getting the inside scoop from the Manchester regional. I’ll be up here all weekend, providing you … Read more

I’ve really enjoyed all of the dialogue that’s been going around this blog all week. Nothing like stirring the pot to get the masses of college hockey fans talking. Because there’s been such active participation, particularly from the WCHA and Hockey East fans, I have a question to pose: In regions where your league has … Read more

In my days in college hockey I’ve seen plenty of people give teams the ammunition to win. But in all my time have I seen such little respect given to a team that, in the history of the NCAA tournament, has more championships than any other club. Michigan will play North Dakota this weekend in … Read more

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