USCHO.com has learned that Merrimack has narrowed its choice of a new head coach down to five finalists and that each of these finalists will interview next week on Merrimack’s campus in North Andover, Mass.
The five finalists are Bruce Crowder, Mark Dennehy, Greg Dreschel, Chris Kiene and Paul Pearl.
Crowder was recently released from his contract at Northeastern and is looking for his third head coach position in Division I college hockey after stints at Mass.-Lowell and Northeastern. In 14 seasons as a head coach Crowder is 219-245-55.
Dennehy is currently the associate head coach to Don “Toot” Cahoon at Massachusetts. Dennehy has one year of experience as a head coach when he took Fairfield to a 3-28-3 record in 1999-2000.
Greg Dreschel is an assistant at Clarkson with George Roll. Dreschel was a former scout with the Los Angeles Kings.
Chris Kiene is currently the head coach of the [nl]Connecticut Clipper 1991 Bantam team. He founded the Connecticut Whalers association and is also a former star defenseman for Merrimack.
Pearl is the head coach at Holy Cross where in 10 seasons he has compiled a 154-138-29 record.
The head coaching position became open with Chris Serino, who also served as interim athletic director, resigned to become athletic director and hockey coach at Malden (Mass.) Catholic High School. Merrimack also has yet to fill the athletic director position.
