Maine Hires Gendron as Head Coach

Maine hired former assistant Dennis “Red” Gendron this week as head coach to replace the ousted Tim Whitehead. Gendron was on the staff of Maine’s first NCAA title team in 1993, and also coached in the New Jersey Devils organization. He then moved on to Massachusetts before spending the last two seasons at Yale,  garnering a second national championship ring in April with the Bulldogs.

With Mike Cavanaugh having been hired at UConn earlier this month, one of the last open head coaching positions in the Division I men’s ranks is at Alaska Anchorage, which assembled a new committee, including UAA hockey program founder Kelvin “Brush” Christiansen, to name a successor to Dave Shyiak. The former Northern Michigan skater was let go by the Seawolves after eight seasons and has been embroiled in some controversy lately involving an incident during his tenure at UAA.

Shyiak is still seeking a new coaching job along with Mark Osiecki and George Gwozdecky, who were released by Ohio State and Denver, respectively, this off-season. Osiecki spent three years at OSU after assisting at his alma mater of Wisconsin. Fellow Badgers alum Gwozdecky was not retained at Denver after 19 seasons with the Pioneers, including NCAA championships in both 2004 and 2005.

As reported tonight at USCHO.com, UAA athletic director Steve Cobb has been relieved of his duties. He had earlier received votes of no confidence from both the Anchorage youth hockey community and an alumni group of former Seawolf players.

The site is also reporting that the head coaching job at Alabama-Huntsville has just opened up after Kurt Kleinendorst stepped down after one season at the helm of the Chargers. UAH will join former independent foe UAA in the revamped Western Collegiate Hockey Association this fall.

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.