It was after two non-conference games in mid-December that, despite his team having a below .500 record, Scott Borek believed the Merrimack College men’s ice hockey team could make it to the TD Garden this year for the Hockey East Tournament.
The Warriors hosted Yale and Long Island University on Dec. 12 and 13, winning both contests right before winter break. Borek said that was the weekend his team righted the ship for the season. And their first game back from break, a win over Vermont, was the moment Borek sensed something special could happen.
“Our game was really good then in certain areas, but not consistent in all areas,” Borek said. “We played really well (against Yale and LIU) and went into the break with a much different mindset. And then against Vermont, we got the result we needed.”
The Warriors not only made it to the Garden this year, but they pulled off a historic run and became the first No. 8 seed in the conference’s history to win the championship, beating UConn 2-1 on Saturday night.
“I’m incredibly proud of our guys,” said Borek. “For them to have stayed dialed in is an incredible gift. It would have been easy to get distracted. When our season wasn’t going great, they could have gotten off the page and they never did.”
This is the second time the Warriors made it to the Garden under Borek. The last time, in 2023, ended differently than this year, with Merrimack losing in the championship game to Boston University 3-2 in overtime. This year, Borek said he and his staff ensured their preparation mimicked what the team does every week, including a review on Saturday morning of the team’s Friday night win against UMass Amherst, as well as a team meeting on Sunday.
“The itinerary we gave out last week included the Sunday morning meeting because we wanted to send our players the message that us coaches were confident we would need that meeting before Selection Sunday,” Borek said.
In addition to the player meeting, before learning Merrimack will take on North Dakota in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on March 26, Borek had a couple of impromptu meetings with parents visiting campus for Admitted Student Day (ASD).
One father said his daughter was planning to go to Providence College, but after attending Saturday night’s game and witnessing how passionate and supportive the Merrimack students were, the family decided to attend ASD and his daughter is now planning to attend Merrimack.
“The students really embraced us over the weekend and willed this team to do something not many outside of our program expected us to do,” said Borek. “The students’ support will probably help us maintain our roster more than anything else, and give us the possibility of running this back next season.”
Given his busy schedule, Borek said he doesn’t really get down to the Garden much during the off-season. But now that a Merrimack College banner will hang in the rafters for the next 12 months as Hockey East champions, he is going to make sure to get there more.
“As a Boston-area kid, that is really a dream come true,” Borek said.
