Middlebury head coach Bill Beaney won his 500th game last Saturday with a 6-3 win over New England College, ironically the school where he won his first college hockey game. Beaney won 86 games at NEC before making the move to Middlebury, where he has compiled a record of 414-115-28, including eight national titles.
Beaney is the 18th coach in NCAA history to win 500 games and is second among active coaches in Division III. Mike McShane at Norwich has 516 wins, but he won 244 of those at the Division I level. The all-time record for Division III wins is held by Don Roberts, who retired at Gustavus Adolphus in 1997 with 532 wins. If Beaney sticks around two more seasons, he’ll probably break that record.
The Panthers are diverting slightly from their normal pattern of getting off to a slow start (for them anyway), picking up speed before hitting a road bump in January, and then getting stronger down the stretch, winning the NESCAC and going deep into the NCAA tournament. No bump this time as Middlebury has won 10 in a row and has been steadily moving up the USCHO.com poll.
