Bob Hall writes:
>As a BG and CCHA follower, I'll have to admit that I miss the "flash" of Frank
>Anzalone.  He had the knack to do the unexpected, and was quite an entertainer
>if he meant to be or not (and perhaps was a sometimes embarrassment to the LSSU
>administration - the Bobby Knight of college hockey?)
 
I recall Frank speaking at the banquet before the 1985 RPI Invitational,
when LSSU arrived late for the dinner because of a blizzard.  He broke
up the whole room into laughter; wish I could remember some of the
things he said.  A funny guy.
 
Frank's arrogance was something he seemed not to hide, either.  When
Merrimack traveled out to SSM in 1988 to play the Lakers in an NC$$
quarterfinal total goals series, MC coach Ron Anderson spent some time
with Anzalone before the games.  Talk about two complete opposites,
Anderson and Anzalone.  The way I heard it, Anzalone told Anderson,
"Well, we're still trying to decide what route we should take to get
to Lake Placid next week. [site of the 1988 NC$$ final four]  We don't
know if we should travel up through Canada, or down through Michigan
and across Ontario and New York."  Being the quiet guy he is, Anderson
just nodded and didn't say much.  But you can bet he relayed this to
the players.
 
The next night, Merrimack beat LSSU 4-3.  Word was that the Soo was in
shock and they were ready to hang Anzalone if LSSU didn't come back to
win the series.
 
LSSU took a 1-0 lead after the first period in Game 2, tying the
series 4-4, but Richard Pion, arguably Merrimack's best player, broke
his leg late in that period.  MC could not recover and LSSU went on to
score four more goals over the last two periods to win, 8-4.
 
Since I was at Northeastern that year, and Merrimack had beaten NU in
one of the major upsets of all-time in the first round, I felt that NU
was vindicated after MC's Game 1 victory over LSSU.  But it didn't
make that loss any easier to take.  Kind of ironic that over 9 seasons,
the game which was most difficult for me to watch my team lose, was to
Merrimack.  On the other hand, nothing again can ever match that
(losing a five goal lead with ~26 minutes to go till the end of the
series), so it can only improve. :-)
---                                                                 ---
Mike Machnik                                          [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                  *HMM* 11/13/93