Holy Cross became a founding member of the MAAC ice hockey conference in 1998 and Pearl helped the team celebrate by winning a then-team record 22 wins capped off by capturing the inaugural conference tournament . Unfortunately the MAAC did not possess an automatic bid for the NCAA tournament and Holy Cross was not invited despite its achievement . As they had done before Holy Cross won the premier conference tournament for the successor Atlantic Hockey conference but this time were invited to the 2004 tournament . While Pearl 's team was blanked by North Dakota their second berth two years later provided what is widely considered the biggest upset in college hockey history when the 15th seed Crusaders downed the second ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers 4-3 in overtime
conference tournament
1999 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
Paul Pearl