Jim ConnellyYou can call Boston College’s 8-3 victory over Providence a drubbing. You can call it a slaughtering. You can call it an all-around butt-whopping. What you can’t call it is a Beanpot letdown. “We had talked about the Beanpot,” said BC head coach Jerry York. “But we’re locked in a pretty challenging race of the … Read more
How Tough is Your Schedule Four weeks remain in the Atlantic Hockey regular season. All but two teams have eight games remaining (Sacred Heart and Army each have six). Time to make any sort of standings move is definitely running thin, but with each remaining series for every team a two-game-in-two-nights situation, a lot of … Read more
The Beanpot semifinals produced some of the familiar (including BC-BU in the title game), but also plenty of the unexpected, Jim Connelly says.
It’s often been said that the Beanpot is the time for big players to shine. Boston College agrees. Led by its upperclassmen, college hockey’s youngest team advanced to the championship game for the 27th time in tournament history with a 5-2 victory over Northeastern in the opening game to the 54th annual Beanpot. The Eagles … Read more
Massachusetts head coach Don ‘Toot’ Cahoon may have worried that his team would have a letdown after an emotion-filled win over Boston College on Friday night. Saturday night against sister school Mass.-Lowell, the Minutemen convincingly put Cahoon’s mind at ease. Behind a seven-point effort from Massachusetts’ top line and spectacular play on special teams, the … Read more
For each of the four Beanpot coaches, the weekend game played right before the annual Beanpot tournament always brings with it worry that his team might overlook the game. Well, Jack Parker, you have nothing to worry about. In absolutely dominating and convincing fashion, Parker’s Boston University Terriers manhandled the Mass.-Lowell River Hawks, 5-1, at … Read more
Just When You Thought It Was Safe… News flash: Don’t go handing the Atlantic Hockey title to Mercyhurst just yet. The once unbeatable-looking Lakers have returned to Earth and have watched the race for the league’s regular-season title become tighter than the Olsen twins’ meal allowance. What was once a seven point lead over its … Read more
Boston College’s pot has officially boiled over. Brian Boyle, that is. Riding the back of a career-high four-goal game from Boyle, the Eagles staved off a pesky Massachusetts-Lowell team, 4-3 in overtime, to avoid back-to-back losses for the first time this season. Boyle’s game-winner came with 48.8 seconds left in the overtime period when he … Read more
When Friday night’s game between college hockey’s top rivals Boston College and Boston University began, all eyes were focused on BC netminder Cory Schneider and his bid for the all-time longest regular-season shutout streak. By the time the night ended, not only was Schneider’s bid quashed but so was their quest for a victory as … Read more
Home Sweet Home (Ice) Generally, as the season winds down, talk on most media space, this included, swings towards the battle for the regular-season championship. Indeed, I could fill a thousand words talking about how evenly-matched Mercyhurst, Sacred Heart and Holy Cross are. To me, though, that’s become a broken record. Save Quinnipiac, those four … Read more
The East regains the top spot in the polls — but not in the PWR or the NHL draft rankings, Jim Connelly notes. Also: ECACHL parity and AHA home ice.
For the second straight weekend, the nation’s premier matchup turned into one team making a major statement. One week after No. 1 Wisconsin swept then-No. 5 Colorado College in the WCHA, No. 2 Boston College completed a two-game sweep of No. 5 Vermont with a 3-0 victory Saturday night. It was the third straight shutout … Read more
It was billed as a battle of Hockey East heavyweights, and Friday’s contest, the first of two this weekend between No. 5 Vermont and No. 2 Boston College, met expectations of a hard-fought prize fight. In the end, the Eagles came out on top thanks to two goals off faceoff plays and outstanding goaltending from … Read more
College hockey will once again make a major impact on the NHL stage, according to the NHL Central Scouting Service’s Midterm Rankings of 2006 Entry Draft prospects. The top three ranked North American skaters all have college ties, with Minnesota freshman-to-be Erik Johnson leading the way. Johnson, a strapping 6-foot-4 defenseman, has scored 20 points … Read more
Mercyhurst Goaltending: No Small Problem I’ve written a good bit about Mercyhurst’s goaltending situation this season, mostly because it’s unique to see a school put itself in the situation the Lakers currently are in. Mercyhurst began the season with four — yes, four — goaltenders, all of whom the coaching staff believed could play at … Read more
To be a top-ranked team nationally, once or twice over the course of the season you need to get a little bit lucky. Friday night, Boston College used up one of those rabbit’s feet. Despite being outplayed for much of the night, in particular the game’s final period, the Eagles caught a late break when … Read more
The Ultimate Upset “All year we’ve been playing really well and haven’t had a lot to show for it.” The words of Army head coach Brian Riley show the frustration the second-year coach has had to this point in the season. To win any game is big at this point. So how do you classify … Read more
Friday night’s match-up between Northeastern and Boston College had all the makings for a major upset. That was until Eagles rookie forward Benn Ferriero took control of things. With the game tied a two late in the third period, Ferriero netted his second goal of the game on the power play to give BC a … Read more
Center Stage Atlantic Hockey takes center stage this weekend as defending tournament champion Mercyhurst travels to Army for a pair of games, the first of which will be broadcast nationally on CSTV. Friday’s game marks the first time that an Atlantic Hockey league game will be broadcast on CSTV. Army has, in the past, had … Read more
With Santa on his way, Jim Connelly hands out his (slightly tongue-in-cheek) holiday awards to the East.