All home teams win tonight. at BU 5, Lowell 2 at Maine 7, UNH 4 at Merrimack 6, BC 4 Claudio Peca scored a PPG halfway through the third to break a 4-4 tie and added the ENG as Merrimack beat BC for the second time in three nights. Warriors came back from a 4-2 deficit in the second to win. BC trailed 2-0 after one but scored four goals on 5 shots in 5:15 early in the second to go up 4-2. ANDERSON WINS 200TH I've been waiting a long time to say this. Tonight Merrimack head coach Ron Anderson recorded his 200th win (200-162-11) and was named #1 star of the game. After the game, he was drenched in a celebratory shower (water, not champagne - that's on ice for the HE title someday) by his players and presented with a cake made for the occasion. Anderson is the second winningest coach in school history behind legendary coach J. Thom Lawler (218-138-10), who directed the Warriors to the 1978 NC$$ DivII championship and then passed away. Under Anderson, who took over in 1983-84 and is coaching his 11th season, Merrimack won three straight ECAC East championships from 1987-89 with an ECAC record of 66-4-0 during that span. He was named ECAC Coach of the Year after his 1986-87 team went 25-2-0 in ECAC play. His first team in 1983-84 finished 13-19-0 but advanced all the way to the NC$$ DivII finals. Merrimack moved up to DivI Independent status in 1984-85 and five years later entered Hockey East. His 1988 team received the first ever independent bid to the DivI tourney and recorded one of the most incredible comeback wins in tourney history, scoring seven unanswered goals in the last 26 minutes of a two game, total goals series at Northeastern to win, 10-8. That team went on to defeat eventual champion Lake Superior 4-3 in the first game of a two game, total goals quarterfinal series, before dropping the series 8-4 and finishing with a record of 34-6-0. Though his regular season HE record since 1989 stands at only 26-76-2, his teams have always finished at or above the preseason predictions, and perhaps the thing he is proudest of is that his team placed a league high 9 players on the HE Academic Honor Roll last season, including having the player with the highest GPA in HE for the third straight season, while going 8-8-0 against HE teams other than BU and Maine. Anderson was a star forward for the last team to win back to back NC$$ DivI titles, BU in 1971 and 1972. He turned pro and scored 41 goals for the AHL Boston Braves, being named AHL Rookie of the Year. He also played for the Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals from 1974-76. Among his fondest memories, he lists scoring off Montreal's Ken Dryden in the Forum and receiving a bigger ovation than Bobby Orr during introductions at a Bruins' exhibition game in hometown Moncton, New Brunswick. Anyone who has met Anderson knows what a classy guy he is, and he is certainly one of the more respected coaches in the game. For me, he is the #1 reason why my involvement with the program over the last five years has been so enjoyable. As well, there is no doubt that without him at the helm, the program never would have been able to make the jump to fulltime DivI. His integrity is unquestionable, and he is as approachable and unchanged by the program's move to the big time as he was before it. I look forward to the day that he leads Merrimack to a Hockey East title and national title, and I don't think anyone will be more deserving when those things happen. I feel this is enough of a momentous occasion to repeat on HOCKEY-L what I told him tonight: Congratulations Ron, and let's go get #201. --- --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93 <<<<< Color Voice of the (11-14-2) Merrimack Warriors WCCM 800 AM >>>>>