More NCAA Head Coaching Changes Occur

Two more NCAA Division I schools have or will be making head coaching changes.

Jeff Jackson (Michigan State) will step down from college coaching following the 2024-25 season at the University of Notre Dame, after helming the Fighting Irish for a full 20 years. Since taking over in South Bend in 2005-06, Jackson, 69, has led UND to an overall record of 407-266-73, including 12 NCAA tournament berths, eight combined conference regular-season and tournament titles over three leagues (CCHA, Hockey East, Big Ten), four NCAA Frozen Four berths, and two NCAA championship game appearances. 

Prior to joining the Irish, Jackson spent six seasons as head coach at Lake Superior State University, winning two NCAA championships while also leading the Lakers to six NCAA tournament appearances, four CCHA tournament crowns and two CCHA regular-season titles. A native of Roseville, Michigan, Jackson has also served as head coach with St. Clair (NAHL), the U.S. National Team Development Program, and Guelph (OHL), while also working as an assistant with LSSU and the New York Islanders. He is also a two-time winner of the Spencer Penrose Award as the top head coach in college hockey, and has fashioned an overall NCAA record of 589-318-98.

Dave Shyiak (Northern Michigan) has returned to his alma mater as head coach after serving the past four years as associate head coach at St. Cloud State, where he helped the Huskies to the 2021 NCAA championship game. A native of Brandon, Manitoba, Shyiak previously served as head coach at the University of Alaska Anchorage from 2005 to 2013, where he compiled a record of 80-177-33 with the Seawolves. 

Shyiak, 57, first worked as a head coach in the BCJHL with both Kimberley and Merritt, then spent 10 seasons as assistant/associate head coach at NMU, before later serving as associate head coach at Western Michigan for six seasons after coaching at UAA. He was also a member of NMU's 1991 NCAA championship team, and tallied 20 goals and 22 assists for 42 points to go with 217 penalty minutes in 125 career games as a forward with the Wildcats. 

Former NMU head coach Grant Potulny (Minnesota), who left the Wildcats earlier this month after seven years in Marquette, has been announced as head coach of the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack, the top affiliate of the New York Rangers. He guided NMU to a 128-113-17 mark overall, including their transition from the WCHA to the new CCHA, as just the third head coach in program history.

Coaching Changes at NCAA Division I Level

College hockey will have a different look at several NCAA Division I men's schools next season.

Grant Potulny has stepped down at Northern Michigan University after seven seasons to pursue a professional hockey job. Potulny, 44, who scored the game-winning power-lay goal in overtime for Minnesota in the 2002 NCAA championship contest, guided the Wildcats to a 128-113-17 mark overall, including their transition from the WCHA to the new CCHA, as just the third head coach in program history. Following a five-year professional playing career, the Grand Forks, N.D. native served as an assistant coach at his alma mater from 2009 to 2017 before taking over at NMU. Athletic director and former head coach Rick Comley, who led the Wildcats to the 1991 NCAA title, will serve as interim head coach until Potulny's successor is selected.

Clarkson is also in the market for a new men's hockey head coach, as Casey Jones is returning to Cornell University as associate head coach for next season. He will then transition to head coach next summer, when Mike Schafer retires following the 2024-25 campaign after 30 years at the helm of the Big Red. 

Jones, 56, from Temiscaming, PQ compiled a 234-185-56 overall record at Clarkson over the past 13 years, while leading the Golden Knights to the 2019 ECAC Hockey playoff crown and two NCAA tournament berths. Prior to taking over at Clarkson, he served as an assistant or associate coach at Clarkson and Ohio State, a stretch that was bookended by two stints at his alma mater. He skated four years as a Big Red center (1986-1990), helping them to 62 wins overall.

Schafer, 61, from Durham, Ont., has overseen the Big Red since the 1995-96 season, accumulating an overall mark of 542-289-111. A former Cornell defenseman (1982-1986), he served four years as an assistant coach at his alma mater before moving on to Western Michigan for four more years. He then took over the Big Red and has since led it to 13 Ivy League crowns, six ECAC Hockey Cleary Cup regular-season titles, and six Whitelaw Cups as conference tournament champion, including this past season. Cornell has also qualified for 14 NCAA tournaments under Schafer's watch, including a berth in the 2003 NCAA Frozen Four.

CCHA to Return in 2021-22

The Central Collegiate Hockey Association appears to be coming back—at the expense of the current Western Collegiate Hockey Association.

Bemidji State, Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State and Northern Michigan will be leaving the WCHA to start up the new CCHA in 2021-22, according to several published reports. The original CCHA disbanded in 2013, after more than 40 years of prestigious NCAA Division I men's hockey, following the formation of both the new Big Ten Hockey Conference and the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, and the loss of CCHA member schools to those two leagues plus the WCHA.

The logo, commissioner, playoff format and other details of the new CCHA have yet to be determined. The seismic shift to the WCHA at the end of next season will leave Alaska Anchorage, Alaska (Fairbanks) and Alabama-Huntsville without a conference home. All three were previously Division I independents in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The only current NCAA Division I men's ice hockey independent is Arizona State.

Seven Schools Plan to Leave WCHA

Seven of the 10 schools in the current Western Collegiate Hockey Association are seeking to leave and form a new NCAA Division I men's ice hockey conference, according to published reports.

The seven schools making the proposed move include Bemidji State University, Bowling Green State University, Ferris State University, Lake Superior State University, Michigan Technological University, Minnesota State University (Mankato), and Northern Michigan University. The new league would begin play in the fall of 2021, and according to bgsufalcons.com, the seven schools have already independently submitted formal letters of notice to the WCHA office regarding their intent to leave the conference.

The "original" WCHA split up in 2013 when Minnesota and Wisconsin went over to the new Big Ten conference, and Colorado College, Denver, Minnesota-Duluth, Nebraska-Omaha, North Dakota and St. Cloud State joined the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference. Bowling Green, Ferris State Lake Superior and Northern Michigan all left the dissolving Central Collegiate Hockey Association that year and transferred to the new WCHA.

The loss of the seven aforementioned schools would leave the WCHA with just three members in Alabama-Huntsville, Alaska Anchorage, and Alaska (Fairbanks).

AHL's Griffins Claim Second-Ever Calder Cup

The Grand Rapids Griffins won their second-ever Calder Cup, and first-ever at home, with Tuesday night’s 4-3 win over the Syracuse Crunch in Game 6 at Van Andel Arena in downtown Grand Rapids, Mich.

The Griffins claimed their first American Hockey League championship in 2013, by also defeating the Crunch in six games, with the deciding contest that year held in Syracuse. Grand Rapids, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings, won 15 of 19 games during the 2017 postseason, ousting Milwaukee, Chicago and San Jose before doing likewise to Syracuse.

Ben Street (Wisconsin) of the Griffins was second on the squad, and fourth in the league, with 21 points during the playoffs. Jared Coureau (Northern Michigan) was in net for all of Grand Rapids’s postseason games, going 15-4-0 with a 2.89 goals-against average in 19 contests.

Syracuse forward Cory Conacher (Canisius) led all scorers during the Calder Cup Playoffs with 12 goals and 28 points. Mike McKenna (St. Lawrence) finished with a 13-9 record and a 2.68 goals-against average in 22 playoff appearances, while Matt Taormina (Providence) paced all league defensemen with 15 assists and 20 points.

Blais Steps Down at Omaha

The hockey coaching carousel continues in the NCAA Division college hockey ranks, three weeks before the season-ending Frozen Four in Chicago.

On March 6, Seth Appert was relieved of his duties after 11 years at Rensselaer. Shortly after, Walt Kyle was dismissed after 15 seasons at his alma mater, Northern Michigan, where he recorded 265 career victories and an NCAA Tournament berth in 2010 with the Wildcats. On Monday, Niagara parted ways with Dave Burkholder after 16 years, 247 wins, and three NCAA Tournament appearances.

Tuesday, in perhaps the biggest shock, Dean Blais stated that he is stepping down from the helm after eight years at Nebraska-Omaha. He had one year remaining on his contract at UNO.

Blais, a Minnesota graduate who took North Dakota to two NCAA titles (1997, 2000), went 146-133-30 in his tenure with UNO. His record included two of the Mavericks' three all-time NCAA Tournament appearances, including a Frozen Four berth in 2015. A two-time winner of the Spencer Penrose Award as Division I hockey’s top coach, he also led the U.S. to gold at the 2010 IIHF World Junior Championship in Canada.

Omaha concluded its 2016-17 campaign with a 2-1 OT loss to Western Michigan on Sunday to fall, two games to one, in the best-of-three NCHC quarterfinal series.

Successors to the four aforementioned coaches have yet to be named. Bids to the 16-team 2017 NCAA Tournament will be announced on Sunday.

ADDENDUM: USCHO.com announced on Wednesday that longtime New Hampshire men’s hockey coach Dick Umile will retire after the 2017-18 season, and will be succeeded by associate head coach Mike Souza.

Northern Michigan Shutout Streak Ends

Atte Tolvanen and Northern Michigan University's shutout streak came to an end on Friday, with a 5-3 loss to Minnesota State. It only took five games—and nearly a month.

The string began with 15:49 remaining in the second period of a 6-1 win over Alaska Anchorage on Jan. 20. It continued with a 4-0 blanking of UAA the following day, followed by 3-0 and 2-0 wins at Bowling Green on Feb. 3-4. A second two-step sweep of Alaska (Fairbanks) came on Feb. 10-11, by identical scores to the BGSU series, before the streak ended 3:26 into Friday's game against MSU.

Tolvanen, a sophomore from Finland, was in net for all six of those contests, and stopped more than 30 shots in each of the five shutouts. In all he had 196 saves over those five outings, and posted a total shutout string of 339:15. The NCAA Division I consecutive shutout minutes record is 375:01, set by Lake Superior State's Blaine Lacher in 1994.

NMU, which itself has been blanked five times this season, is now 11-18-4 overall, and in seventh place in the WCHA with a 9-13-3 mark.

What's Wrong with Michigan?

Last season, the University of Michigan was an overtime goal away from its 10th national hockey championship, and first since 1998. This fall, the Wolverines started off with four consecutive victories, including a 10-3 pasting of visiting St. Lawrence, and by Halloween they were ranked third in the nation.

Fast forward four weeks—and not only is Michigan barely ranked in the top 20 teams in NCAA Division I, but has lost four straight games and is just 7-7-2 overall.

The Wolverines suffered their first setback of the season with a 5-3 loss at Northern Michigan on Oct. 21, but rebounded the next weekend to sweep CCHA front-runner Ferris State. Then the bottom fell out for the Maize and Blue.

Following a split with Western Michigan in early November, the Wolverines have gone winless in six straight games, including a current streak of four consecutive losses. They haven't won a game since Nov. 5, and even suffered an ignominious home sweep to Ohio State.

This past weekend, Michigan suffered back-to-back home losses to a pair of Eastern squads from Northeastern (4-1) and Union (6-3). This upcoming weekend, the Wolverines will trek almost 3,700 miles one-way to the 49th State, to face-off with CCHA foe Alaska Fairbanks for two key conference games.

If there's a finger to point collectively, it could very well be at U-M's special teams units. The power play has converted just 12-of-66 opportunities (18.2 percent), putting it 29th in the nation. The penalty killing has been even worse, stopping just 61-of-76 attempts (80.3 percent) to rank 35th in Division I.