Jim Connelly

Logan Cockerill’s goal late in the second period broke a 1-1 tie and was enough for Boston University to earn a 2-1 victory and sweep the quarterfinal series against Connecticut to advance to the Hockey East semifinals, where they will face Boston College in the opening game at the TD Garden. Brady Tkachuk opened the … Read more

Chris Grando’s short-handed game-winning goal at 4:20 of overtime propelled Boston College past a plucky 10-seed Merrimack, 4-3, sending the Eagles to the Garden. They will face arch-rival Boston University in Friday’s opening semifinal game at the TD Garden. The Eagles fell behind on the shot chart for the second straight game, but unlike Friday … Read more

Host Providence held of a feisty Maine team, 3-2, on Saturday to sweep their quarterfinal series and advance to the semifinals where they will face Northeastern on Friday in the second semifinal game at the TD Garden. Providence jumped out to a 3-0 first-period lead on Scott Conway’s second goal of the series combined with … Read more

BOSTON — One night after being in an absolute dogfight from beginning to end, the Northeastern Huskies and their faithful breathed a bit easier on Saturday night. The second-seeded Huskies exploded for two goals in the first period and four more in the second to romp past eighth-seed Massachusetts, 7-2, to earn a sweep of … Read more

BOSTON – The Massachusetts Minutemen had themselves in an ideal position to pull off an upset of #2 seed Northeastern in the opening game of the best-of-three quarterfinals. Then one bounce changed everything. With the game tied at 2, UMass holding a significant territorial advantage and on the power play, a timely penalty kill featuring … Read more

Well, Dave pulled the rabbit out of his (expletive) last weekend perfectly picking the Vermont-Mass series. Thus, I’m going to have to correctly pick a couple of upsets this week or else the old man will be the champion, despite having trailed the entire season. Jim last week: 3-4-0 Dave last week: 5-2-0 Jim to … Read more

New Hampshire fought down to the final minute in back-to-back losses to Maine in Hockey East first-round play. But their loss to rival Maine ended the illustrious career of bench boss Dick Umile. 1. The legendary career of Umile ends, but memories never will Minutes after Maine advanced past New Hampshire with a 3-1 win … Read more

Amazing. After 22 weeks of the regular season, Dave and I have the exact same record. It’s almost impossible to believe. The postseason will be the deciding factor this year. May the best man win. Jim last week: 5-3-1 Jim to date: 131-81-26 Dave last week: 6-2-1 Dave to date: 131-81-26 Hockey East playoffs – … Read more

It took until the end of the final game on Saturday for the pairings in the Hockey East first round to align, but once they did, there was a commonailty in all three series: rivals. 1. Battle of the Merrimack Valley UMass Lowell beat Merrimack, 5-0, on Saturday to earn split of the weekend series. … Read more