The MAAC men's ice hockey tournament was the conference tournament for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), an NCAA Division I athletic conference that sponsored ice hockey from 1998 to 2003 and changed its name to Metro Conference in 2026. Beginning in 2001, the winner of the tournament received an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
History In Fall of 1997, the MAAC announced it would begin sponsoring hockey, with three of its members supporting the sport. To fill in the remaining spots in the conference, the MAAC brought in five associate members. In the first year of the conference, a conference tournament was held to determine a champion. Holy Cross would end up winning the inaugural tournament over Canisius with a score of 4–3. Unfortunately, the tournament was not able to offer an auto-bid to the NCAA tournament, so this would end up being Holy Cross's last game of the season. By the 2000–01 season, the MAAC had expanded to eleven teams, and beginning with the 2001 tournament, the conference was finally able to offer an auto-bid to the NCAA tournament, this time going to Mercyhurst. Following the 2002–03 season, two members, Fairfield and Iona, dropped hockey, leaving the MAAC with eight associate hockey members and one full member. At the time, MAAC rules did not allow associate members to vote in conference decisions, meaning nearly all MAAC hockey members had no voice in what was happening in their conference. Due to this, the nine remaining members split off and formed the Atlantic Hockey conference. The final winner of the MAAC tournament was Mercyhurst. The MAAC tournament was succeeded by the Atlantic Hockey tournament and later the Atlantic Hockey America tournament.
Tournament results YearWinning teamCoachLosing teamCoachScoreLocationFinals venue1999Holy CrossCanisius4–3Worcester, MassachusettsHart Center2000ConnecticutIona6–1Storrs, ConnecticutUConn Ice Arena2001MercyhurstQuinnipiac6–5Storrs, ConnecticutUConn Ice Arena2002QuinnipiacMercyhurst6–4Worcester, MassachusettsHart Center2003Mercyhurst (2)Quinnipiac4–3West Point, New YorkTate Rink
Championship round performance SchoolChampionshipsAppearancesPctMercyhurst23Quinnipiac13Connecticut11Holy Cross11Canisius01Iona01
Location of Men's MAAC tournaments 1999: Hart Center, Worcester, Massachusetts 2000–2001: UConn Ice Arena, Storrs, Connecticut 2002: Hart Center, Worcester, Massachusetts 2003: Tate Rink, West Point, New York
See also MAAC Tournament Most Valuable Player
References