Jim ConnellyDETROIT – When this season began, Boston College goaltender John Muse was the team’s biggest question. Coming off surgery in the summer to repair his hip, head coach Jerry York wondered if we’d see the standout netminder before November. When he appeared in net, though, to start the season, many were shocked. But a somewhat … Read more
Conviction always beats convention. Just ask the Boston College Eagles. For the second straight week, the Eagles used an out-of-the-ordinary performance to capture a championship, defeating Yale, 9-7, in a wild and wooly Northeast Regional championship game to advance to the Frozen Four for the ninth time in 13 years and 22nd time in school … Read more
Yale enjoys the underdog role as it wins its first NCAA game since 1952.
After an opening day of the NCAA Ice Hockey tournament where top seeds were pressed to the brink, and in the case of top seed Denver saw its season come to the end, it’s no surprise that Boston College coach Jerry York was concerned that his Eagles could become yet another victim of an upset. … Read more
On an evening when everything that happened between Boston College and Maine seemed improbable, it was only fitting that the game’s hero was equally as improbable. Eagles senior Matt Lombardi, who entered Saturday’s Hockey East Championship game with three goals on the season, scored the game-winning goal at 5:25 of overtime to complete his first … Read more
It may not have been the most conventional win, but with a 5-2 victory over No. 3 seed Boston University, the No. 4 seed Maine Black Bears are headed to the Hockey East championship game for the first time since 2004. Maine will face Boston College, a 3-0 winner over Vermont on Friday, in the … Read more
On to Boston After one of the most dramatic quarterfinal rounds in league history, four teams will make the march to Boston this weekend to crown a league champion. For two teams, it will be a short bus ride as stalwarts Boston College and Boston University make their respective rides down Commonwealth Avenue, over Beacon … Read more
After Sunday’s 3-0 loss to Boston University in the deciding game of the best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinals series, Merrimack coach Mark Dennehy wasn’t shy when talking about the expectations for his Warriors this season. “I don’t know that anybody believed in this team except this team,” said Dennehy. “Any advancement we made as a program … Read more
The curse of the seventh seed lives on. No. 2 seed Boston College broke open a 2-2 tie with three goals in the third period to defeat No. 7 seed Massachusetts, 5-2, and sweep the best-of-three series quarterfinal series. The series victory for BC continues the futility for seventh-seeded team in the Hockey East tournament; … Read more
The calendar might read March 12 and Friday’s game between No. 2 seed Boston College and No. 7 seed Massachusetts was technically a quarterfinal playoff game, but the caliber of play between the Eagles and Minutemen at BC’s Kelley Rink made it seem more like an exhibition game played in early October. A game that … Read more
Women’s hockey may not be known for blistering one-timers off the stick of defensemen. Unless, of course, you’re talking about Boston University defenseman Tara Watchorn. The sophomore put every ounce of her 5-foot-10 frame into a one-timer from just inside the blue line that beat Connecticut netminder Alexandra Garcia at 9:52 of overtime to give … Read more
There may have been little to nothing on the line when No. 5 Boston College hosted No. 10 New Hampshire on Saturday night in the regular-season finale for both teams, but if that’s the case, no one told the players. Â A night after UNH rallied for three third-period goals to earn a 3-3 tie … Read more
Standings, Standings and More Standings I’m not enough of a Hockey East historian to know whether this officially is the tightest logjam entering the final weekend of play in league history. If it’s not, I can’t imagine the math that pundits were going through in the past. At this point in the season, the league … Read more
It’s college hockey playoff time and nowhere was that evident more than at Kelley Rink on Friday as Massachusetts and host Boston College played a prototypical postseason game. With UMass fighting for its playoff lives it gave the Eagles, themselves battling for the league crown, everything they could handle. But when the chips were down, … Read more
And Down the Stretch They Come Two weekends is all that remains in Hockey East’s regular season and, at this point, the standings are about as muddy as they could be. A few things we know right now: One team has clinched home ice: New Hampshire. One team has guaranteed it won’t make the postseason: … Read more
Seven is becoming a magic number for Boston College. The seventh-ranked Eagles scored seven goals for the second straight game on Tuesday, dismantling a red-hot Merrimack team, 7-0, in front of a sparse midweek crowd of 2,816 at Kelley Rink. After blasting Northeastern, 7-1, on Sunday behind a Brian Gibbons’ hat trick, the first of … Read more
After a 3-2 loss on the road to Northeastern on Friday night, the bus ride back from Matthews Arena to Conte Forum might have been the longest five miles of BC coach Jerry York’s life. Â York’s club, in a neck-and-neck race with New Hampshire, lost ground when the Eagles lost on Friday in a … Read more
Boston University center Corey Trivino is expected to miss the remainder of the 2009-10 season after suffering a fractured right fibula in Saturday’s 5-2 victory over Maine, the school announced on Wednesday. Trivino has appeared in all 28 games this season for the Terriers, tallying 15 points on four goals and 11 assists. He scored … Read more
Vermont junior forward Justin Milo was dismissed from the team on Tuesday according to a representative of the Catamounts athletic department. Milo, who was tied for second on the team in scoring this season, was let go for what head coach Kevin Sneddon said was “the best interest of the program.†According to the Burlington … Read more
With 2:50 remaining in regulation of a 1-1 game between No. 10 Boston College and No. 20 Massachusetts-Lowell, things looked a bit ominous for the host Eagles.  BC defenseman Edwin Shea was whistled for boarding, putting Lowell on a power play in the second game of a weekend series that, to that point, hadn’t had … Read more