Jim Connelly

Do You Believe in Miracles? Yes! How about that…twenty years to the day after the U.S. Olympic team upset the Soviets on their way to the Gold Medal in the 1980 Olympics, the Canisius College Ice Griffs pulled off a miracle of their own, knocking off NCAA tournament contender Niagara University, 2-1, in front of … Read more

Race for Home Ice Gets Breathing Room Just as we told you right here last week in the MAAC Games of the Week, the two games played in Storrs, Conn., between UConn and Canisius had a MAJOR impact on the MAAC standings. No one, including myself, could have predicted that the Ice Griffs would sweep … Read more

Playoff Picture Becomes Clearer, Muddier Just when you thought the MAAC standings were beginning to get clearer, guess again. Similar to last season, the top of the standings is clearing up, as Quinnipiac is very close to sewing up its second straight regular-season championship. After that, though, it’s pretty much anybody’s guess. As mentioned right … Read more

Racing to the Finish Anyone take a look at the MAAC standings yet? They’re not a jam-packed as some leagues like Hockey East, where a serious NCAA tournament contender may not get home ice. But at the same time, there’s plenty of congestion. Like a nice spring day at Churchill Downs, the MAAC has three … Read more

It Keeps Growing, and Growing… For the second time in as many seasons, the MAAC hockey conference is growing, as the league announced the addition of Army as its 11th member Monday. Commissioner Rich Ensor, joined by representatives from the MAAC as well as Army, announced the expansion at a telephone press conference. What does … Read more

Tournament Time…NCAA Tournament, That Is U.S. College Hockey Online debuted the 1999-2000 Pairwise Rankings Thursday. For those unfamiliar with the PWR, it is a mathematical ranking system which mimics the selection process used by the NCAA tournament committee in picking the at-large bids to the year-ending championship tourney. The PWR compares every tournament-eligible team in … Read more

Quinnipiac Stays on Top It was the biggest weekend series of the year to date, and when all was said and done, the Quinnipiac Braves had gone to Erie, Penn., and come out with probably a little more than they had bargained for. The Braves, who owned a one-point lead in the standings over Mercyhurst … Read more

Clash of the Titans MAAC Games of the Week Quinnipiac Braves at Mercyhurst Lakers Friday and Saturday, January 7-8, 2000 Mercyhurst Ice Center Is it too early in the season to call a two-game weekend series "crucial" to the regular-season championship? I don’t think so. Okay, so maybe it’s not like last year’s UNH-Maine weekend … Read more

The MAAC Midseason Report Here we are at the halfway point of the college hockey season, and already in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference we’ve seen some eye-opening events. The team that I innocently referred to as the X-factor before the beginning of the season, Mercyhurst, has silently crept its way to the top of … Read more

Santa Claus is Coming to Town Well okay, maybe it’s not Santa Claus, because we not talking about someone who’s very giving. Actually we’re talking about something very stingy, and that’s the Sacred Heart defense. For UConn, a team struggling to score goals, the last thing the Huskies want to see right now is the … Read more

Tournament Time, Baby! Okay, so it’s not time for March Madness — actually not even close. But this past week concluded two more in-season tournaments for MAAC teams, with Mercyhurst College and UConn each participating in Thanksgiving tournaments. Fortunate and unfortunate, the team finished at opposite ends of the spectrum, with Mercyhurst winning the American … Read more

Soderquist Dominates Yellow Jackets Leave it to Bentley College senior forward Ryan Soderquist to take control of a situation. Not even a quarter of the way through his senior season, Soderquist has already become the Falcons’ all-time leading scorer, and last Saturday night he added his name to the record books once again. Just one … Read more

Comebacks and Upsets The third week of MAAC action was chock-full of excitement — highlighted by high-character comebacks and nail-biting overtime victories. There were some firsts as both Bentley and Sacred Heart broke through with their first wins of the season. For Bentley, its come-from-behind, 3-2 win over defending tournament champion Holy Cross was also … Read more

A Record-Setting Week Of course, in a conference that is only a year and two weeks old, you’re going to have records set and broken almost every week. And last week was no exception to the rule as two more league marks fell. However, one might easily think that Quinnipiac and Iona are taking this … Read more

And Now For Something Completely Different… Welcome, Metro Atlantic hockey fans, to this installment of This Week In The MAAC. As you might have noticed from the byline up above, I’m not Jim Connelly, but rather an astonishing likeness. I’ll be your host for this weekend’s tour of the MAAC, before Jim returns Monday with … Read more

So we’re only one week into the 1999-2000 season, and already it’s time to play "who beat who." Our first contestant is defending MAAC champion Holy Cross. Last week, the Crusaders battled hard against the preseason favorite for cellar-dweller in the nation’s strongest conference, Hockey East: Merrimack College. The Crusaders eventually dropped the game, 5-2, … Read more

Showtime! Since the first announcement of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s existence, people around the college hockey circles have questioned, "Can this league compete?" By the end of last year’s inaugural season, folks bellowed that question even louder as four teams, Quinnipiac, Holy Cross, UConn and Canisius, were all under consideration for the NCAA tournament. … Read more