Great Scott! Merrimack's coach finds magic in late season run

This column originally appeared in Friday’s edition of The Eagle Tribune

Tonight at TD Garden in Boston, the Merrimack men’s hockey team will take the ice in the Hockey East semifinal for just the fourth time in program history.

Ron Anderson first brought the Warriors to the Garden in 1998, when his club stunned No. 1 Boston University on the road in the quarterfinals, eliminating Chris Drury and company from the league tournament.

Merrimack returned to the semifinals in 2011, when Mark Dennehy guided the program to 25 wins — a Hockey East-era high — and within one victory of a league title before falling to Boston College in the championship game.

Three years ago, in 2023, Scott Borek led the Warriors back for a third time. Merrimack came within a goal of the title, dropping an overtime decision to top-seeded Boston University.

Tonight, Borek will become the first coach in Merrimack history to lead the program to TD Garden twice.

It has been a masterclass behind the bench this season.

Merrimack has one of the youngest teams it’s had in years, relying heavily on freshmen and sophomores in key roles. The growing pains were real — including a 2-9 stretch from November into early December — but Borek never wavered.

He told me on Dec. 4, as the Warriors sat 2-7 over their previous nine games, “You’re going to think I’m crazy for saying it because of how we have looked recently, but I really believe this group has a chance to make the Garden.”

Three months later, here they are.

Inside the Merrimack room, the themes echo those of the 2023 run — a team built as much on connection as it is on talent.

Former assistant coach Chris Ross put it simply in a recent text: “That team was so close, that was the secret sauce.”

This year’s group feels cut from the same cloth.

“We’re a family here,” freshman forward Justin Gill said. “[Borek] creates that. But we’re a family here. We want to win it for each other.”

Trevor Hoskin delivered the latest defining moment, scoring the overtime winner against Providence in the quarterfinals.

“I haven’t been on a team like this before,” he said. “The whole staff has us prepared, and I know they care about us. It’s the best to play for a coach who you know really has your back. There’s no doubt that [Borek] has our back every day.”

What Borek has built is increasingly rare in today’s college sports landscape. The transfer portal and revenue sharing have turned roster construction into a year-to-year exercise, making sustained culture difficult to maintain.

Yet at Merrimack, the foundation remains intact.

“The players get all the credit,” Borek said. “It’s easy today for players to only care about themselves. Everyone is worried about what they’re going to do next. But what we have here is a group that really cares about the group.”

That identity starts at the top.

The Warriors enter the weekend 14-5-2 over their last 21 games, a stretch defined by resilience. They have shown, time and again, an ability to absorb pressure and respond.

They play that way because their coach lives it.

Earlier this week, Borek spoke candidly in a video posted by the program, suggesting his team has been overlooked and underappreciated. He said that he never considers the Warriors underdogs, but he does feel like his team has been disrespected.

Whether Merrimack cuts down the nets or not, the broader picture is clear.

Borek owns the best career winning percentage of any coach in the program’s Hockey East era. He is now the only one to take the Warriors to TD Garden twice.

Over the last five seasons, Merrimack is 87-86-6 — above .500 — marking the only such stretch in the program’s Hockey East tenure.

By any measure, this run, from 2022 to the present, represents the program’s high-water mark in the conference.

As one Division I coach said this week, speaking off the record: “The fact that he has a winning record over a five-year stretch, even if it’s only by one game, is a miracle.”

Considering the heavyweights that define Hockey East, where Merrimack is up against some of the best-resourced programs in the sport, it’s hard to argue.

Borek’s edge isn’t found in budgets or facilities.

It’s in people.

And in a sport increasingly shaped by movement and uncertainty, that may be the most valuable currency of all.