MSU, BC Seeking New Head Coaches

Michigan State University and Boston College are both in the market for new head coaches for their respective men's ice hockey head coaches.

MSU head coach and alumnus Danton Cole was relieved of his duties earlier this week after five seasons at the Spartan helm. Cole, 55, a 1989 MSU graduate who won a national championship with the Spartans as a freshman player, went 58-101-12 from 2017 to 2022 as coach at MSU after succeeding fellow alumnus Tom Anastos. Cole also coached with the U.S. National Team Development Program, the University of Alabama-Huntsville, and several professional teams following along a longtime pro playing career that saw him win the Stanley Cup with the NHL's New Jersey Devils in 1995.

At BC, longtime head coach and alumnus Jerry York has called it a career after 50 seasons of coaching college hockey. York, 76, who mentored players at Clarkson University, Bowling Green State University, and BC from 1970 to 2022, won an NCAA record total of 1,123 career games. A former All-America forward and Walter Brown Award winner as a senior with BC in 1967, York later led five teams to NCAA titles as a coach, including four at his alma mater (2001, 2008, 2010, 2012), while also leading the Eagles to 651 wins in all from 1994 until now. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2019.

Both schools are now searching for successors, as is Boston University, which let alumnus Albie O'Connell go last month after four seasons in charge of the Terriers.

Cole Named New Michigan State Head Coach

Spartan alumnus Danton Cole has been announced as the new head coach of the Michigan State University hockey program.

Cole played at MSU from 1985 to 1989 for the late Ron Mason, helping the Spartans to the 1986 NCAA crown along with two Central Collegiate Hockey Association regular-season titles and two CCHA playoff championships. He recorded 69 goals and 163 points in 180 career games at MSU, and was a three-time CCHA All-Academic Team member and the recipient of the Big Ten Medal of Honor as a senior.

Cole was chosen by the Winnipeg Jets in the sixth round of the 1985 NHL Entry Draft. He played in 318 NHL regular-season contests with the Jets, Tampa Bay Lightning, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, and Chicago Blackhawks, tallying 58 goals and 118 points, and was a member of New Jersey’s 1995 Stanley Cup champion club.

Cole finished his playing career in 1999 after three full seasons with the International Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins, scoring the first playoff goal and also the initial overtime goal in franchise history, and then became a Griffins’ assistant coach for one year. After winning a United Hockey League championship with the Muskegon Fury, he served two-and-a-half seasons in charge of Grand Rapids, leading the former IHL Griffins to 116 regular-season American Hockey League wins.

After two campaigns with the UHL’s Motor City Mechanics, Cole served one year as an assistant coach with Bowling Green State University before guiding the University of Alabama-Huntsville for three seasons. His tenure with the Chargers culminated in a College Hockey America championship and an NCAA Tournament berth in 2010.

Cole spent the last seven seasons with the U.S. National Team Development Program, guiding the Under-18 Team to gold-medal finishes at the Under-18 World Championships in 2012 and 2014. He was also a coach with two bronze-medal winning U.S. teams, at the 2013 IIHF Men’s World Championship and the 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship.

A native of Pontiac, Mich., who grew up in Lansing, Cole becomes the seventh head coach in MSU hockey history, which dates back intermittently to 1921. He succeeds fellow Spartan alumnus Tom Anastos, who stepped down at the end of the 2016-17 season.

USA Finishes Third at Under-18 Championship

Joey Anderson (Minnesota-Duluth) scored two goals, and Clayton Keller (Boston University) and Casey Mittelstadt finished with three assists apiece, as the United States routed Canada, 10-3, in the bronze medal game of the 2016 IIHF Under-18 World Hockey Championship in Grand Forks, N.D. on Monday. The U.S. medaled for the 12th consecutive time in the tournament, according to IIHF.com.

Jake Oettinger (Boston Unievrsity) finished with 29 saves for the Americans, whose only blemish in the competition was a 4-2 semifinal loss to Finland on Saturday. Finland then defeated Sweden, 6-1, yesterday for the gold medal. Keller, who according to usahockey.com is eligible for the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, finished second in overall tournament scoring with four goals and six assists for 10 points in seven outings. He will join Oettinger at BU in the fall.

Oettinger finished with a record of 4-0 in the championship, which saw the U.S. defeat Russia, Sweden, Latvia, Switzerland and the Czech Republic by a combined score of 38-4 in five Group "B" preliminary-round contests from April 14-21 at Ralph Engelstad Arena. Team USA was coached by Danton Cole (Michigan State).

Next year's U18 tournament will be hosted by Slovakia.

Huntsville Goes with Kleinendorst

The University of Alabama-Huntsville hockey program, still seeking a conference home after competing the last two seasons as an NCAA Division I independent, has turned to the professional ranks for its next bench boss.

UAH announced last week that it had hired Kurt Kleinendorst, who spent the last two seasons coaching Binghamton (AHL), as its new head coach. He replaces Chris Luongo, a former Michigan State and NHL player who guided the Chargers for the past two years.

"It was something I had been kind of thinking about and now everything has worked out," said Kleinendorst recently at al.com.

A native of Grand Rapids, Minn., Kleinendorst, 51, played four years at Providence College (1979-1983) for current New Jersey Devils President/GM Lou Lamoriello, and tallied 89 goals and 103 assists for 192 points in 123 collegiate games while earning All-America accolades. Drafted by the New York Rangers (77th overall ) in 1980, Kleinendorst played six years of minor-league hockey before turning to the coaching ranks with Raleigh (ECHL) in 1991.

He was part of the Devils' system for nine years, including a stint as head coach of the AHL's Lowell Devils (2006-09), and has also coached in Europe and with the U.S National Team Development Program in his career. He was also an assistant coach in New Jersey during the 2001-02 NHL campaign..

His predecessor, Luongo, inherited  a tough job at UAH when he succeeded fellow Michigan State grad Danton Cole in 2010, after the Chargers had made their second-ever NCAA Division I Tournament appearance. UAH managed only six wins over the past two seasons, with the threat of being dropped as a varsity sport coming dangerously close to reality last year.

It's not known why UAH decided to let Luongo go, who is a class act, and he's wished well; but maybe the hiring of Kleinendorst signals that the university is making a committment to have the "Hockey Capital of the South" stick around a while.

His old college coach believes so.

"There is no question in my mind that Kurt will be a decided asset to the University of Alabama-Huntsville hockey team both on and off the ice, and help UAH in their pursuit of a major Division I hockey conference affiliation," said Lamoriello at the UAH athletic web site.