Jim Connelly

It’s been a while since we’ve checked in on Hockey East, though most of the action among the league teams took place over the past week. And a pretty ugly week it was unless you’re Boston College and Merrimack. Both the Eagles and Warriors earned two wins during the holiday break. BC captured the title … Read more

Apologies to the Hockey East fans out there. Between Dave falling off the wagon and turning Christmas into a week-long bender and me having turkey coma since Christmas Day somehow we’ve missed two days of games and thus the related Hockey East picks. Dave isn’t around to add his input but here, at least, are … Read more

The first half of the season hasn’t gone the way that the Northeastern Huskies expected. The team reached the break with a 3-9-4 record and has earned just nine points in Hockey East. With an experience goaltender and some depth on defense, head coach Greg Cronin expected more of his club. Thus far, Northeastern has … Read more

It was a weekend (well, week for some) of highs and lows for Hockey East teams with a few surprise outcomes along the way. We’ll start out with a mention of the most surprising results, in this author’s mind, of the weekend and that’s Boston College’s dominating sweep of Boston University. With BU giving a … Read more

Boston University is not known for giving up short-handed goals, unless of course they are playing their archrival, Boston College. For the second straight night the No. 2 Terriers allowed a short-handed tally to stifle their momentum, this time in a 5-2 loss to the No. 8 Eagles that gave BC the weekend sweep of … Read more

BOSTON – Chaotic. That was the only word that Boston College head coach Jerry York could use to sum up the third period of Friday’s opening game in a home-and-home series with archrival Boston University. For York and the Eagles, the fortunate thing was the game was long out of hand by the point that … Read more

Two great records last week. One, though, is better than the other. Dave last week: 8-2-1 Jim last week: 10-0-1 (yeah, baby!) Dave’s record-to-date: 37-16-16 (.652) Jim’s record-to-date: 35-12-13 (.691) Here are this week’s picks: Friday, December 3 Boston College at Boston University Jim’s pick: Difficult series to pick and a split is most likely. … Read more

It’s rare that Merrimack and Harvard meet in any sport, but specifically hockey. When they do, though, the Warriors seem to make the most of it. Meeting for just the second time ever, Merrimack played a tight defensive game when its offense pelted the Harvard net with shots. A goal that went off Harvard’s Pier-Olivier … Read more

Will the real Boston College men’s hockey team please step forward? Seriously. We’re almost at the holiday break, and the defending national champions, a team most people thought (including myself) that they might threaten Maine’s 42-1-2 record from 1993, seems to be caught in the middle of a Jekyll & Hyde performance. Good games are … Read more

After No. 7 Boston College put forth what coach Jerry York deemed a disappointing effort on Friday in a 5-3 loss at No. 18 Merrimack, you knew the veteran bench boss wanted to make a change. That change, namely shifting around his line combinations, paid off in spades on Sunday as the Eagles routed Vermont … Read more

Just when the Massachusetts-Lowell River Hawks thought things couldn’t get much worse, now Lady Luck seems to be rooting against them. Following an ugly 8-3 loss to Minnesota State on Friday, the River Hawks responded with a solid effort on Saturday, only to have an attempt by rookie Joe Caveney to clear the puck from … Read more

On Monday, Merrimack College earned their first-ever national ranking, debuting at No. 18 in the USCHO.com poll. Four days later, the Warriors proved they’ve earned that ranking. Led by a six-point effort from the top line of Stephane Da Costa (goals, two assists), Chris Barton (goal) and Jesse Todd (goal, assist) combined with a 24-save … Read more