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
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