Holy Cross head coach Paul Pearl has agreed to a three-year extension, running through the 2008-09 season, Director of Athletics Richard M. Regan, Jr., announced Friday.
“This has been a priority for us and something we have been working on since the end of the season,” said Regan. “When you have a successful program, the coach always receives a great deal of the credit but we believe that Coach Pearl deserves an extraordinary amount of credit for the recent success of our men’s ice hockey program.”
“Holy Cross is a special place for me and I feel we have a real opportunity to continue to build this program. It’s a great place to be,” said Pearl. “We have had some great kids in this program and I am excited about the student-athletes that will be joining us next September.”
Pearl, who recently finished his 11th year at the helm of the program, is the winningest coach in Holy Cross history, and is just the fifth head coach in the 36-year history of ice hockey at Holy Cross.
Pearl has forged a 181-148-31 record at his alma mater and has been behind the bench in seven of the nine most successful seasons at Holy Cross. His name had previously been mentioned in connection with both the vacant Yale and Rensselaer head coaching positions. Yale named Keith Allain Saturday.
This season, the Crusaders made a splash at the national level, finishing their most successful season with a 27-10-2 record and an historic 4-3 overtime victory over Minnesota in the West Regional semifinals in Grand Forks, N.D.
That victory was the first for Atlantic Hockey in the NCAA tournament, and was the first time that a No. 4 seed defeated a No. 1 seed since the tournament expanded to 16 teams. Prior to that, the Crusaders won the Atlantic Hockey regular-season and tournament titles for the second time in three years.
