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. Beginning in 2001, the winner of the tournament received an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
In Fall of 1997, the MAAC announced they would begin sponsoring hockey, with three of their members supporting the sport. To fill in the remaining spots in the conference, they 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 4âÂÂ3. 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 2000âÂÂ01 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 2002âÂÂ03 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.