University of Nebraska at Omaha Athletics

Dean Blais burnished his already exceptional credentials as one of the nation’s finest coaches during his first season as the head coach at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.  He led the Mavericks to just their fourth 20-win season in school history, a season that included wins over the number one-ranked team in the country, Miami, and the sixth-ranked team, Bemidji State.  He also stepped away from his UNO duties for a magical two weeks in which he led the U.S. Junior Team to a gold medal at the 2010 IIHF World Championship in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Blais became only the second coach in UNO hockey history on June 12, 2009, succeeding Mike Kemp.  In his first year in Omaha, he guided the Mavericks to a record of 20-16-6 overall record and a 13-12-3-2 record in their final season in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.  The record was good for a sixth-place finish, the highest finish by a UNO team since the 2006-2007 season.

Typical of previous Blais-coached teams, the Mavericks got stronger as the year progressed.  The team was just 10-11-5 entering a weekend series with Northern Michigan in late January.  The Mavs had already lost a pair of games to the Wildcats in November at Marquette, but they turned the tables in the rematch, winning by scores of 7-2 and 5-3 to ignite a strong run in the final six weeks of the season. 

Blais led UNO to a record of 8-3-1 in the final 12 games.  During that string, the Mavericks won at Notre Dame for the first time in nearly five years, beating the Irish 5-3 in the first game of the weekend series.  They also earned their first ever series sweep over Michigan, a team they had beaten just four times in 31 prior meetings, with 4-3 and 4-1 wins at Qwest Center Omaha.  The Mavs also beat then-top ranked Miami 4-2 in Oxford, Ohio on Feb. 20 and followed that with a 3-2 win over then-sixth ranked Bemidji State the following weekend to close the regular season.

Blais found a way to get the most from his players in his first season at UNO.  Eleven different players registered career highs in either goals, assists or points during the 2009-2010 campaign.  Moreover, Blais’ vaunted conditioning program paid big dividends as the Mavericks were unbeaten (14-0-3) when leading after the second period.

In late December, Blais took over the reins of U.S. Junior Team at the 2010 IIHF World Junior Championship.  He led the U.S. to a record of 6-0-1-0.  The Americans capped it off with a 6-5 overtime win over host country Canada in the gold medal game on Jan. 5, just the second gold ever won by the U.S. in the World Junior tournament.  It figures that Blais will have a good knowledge of many of the players who will oppose his team during their first year in the WCHA.  Seven members of Team USA came from the WCHA including current players John Ramage (Wisconsin), Matt Donovan (Denver), Danny Kristo (North Dakota), Derek Stepan (Wisconsin), Jake Gardiner (Wisconsin) and Mike Lee (St. Cloud).

Blais came to UNO from the Fargo Force of the United States Hockey League where he served as head coach and general manager.  As head coach of an expansion team in 2008-09, Blais led the Force to a record of 32-23-5.  The team advanced to the USHL’s Clark Cup Finals before losing to the Indiana Ice three games to one.  He was named USHL Coach of the Year, and the Force were named Organization of the Year.

As a college coach, Blais won NCAA Division I national championships as the head coach of the University of North Dakota in 1997 and 2000.  The Fighting Sioux were runners up in 2001, the last of five straight NCAA appearances under Blais.  Overall, the native of International Falls, Minn. guided North Dakota to seven NCAA appearances, five regular season WCHA titles and two WCHA playoff championships in addition to the national championships.

Blais is a two-time winner of the Spencer Penrose Memorial Award given to the Division I coach of the year.  He is also a three-time WCHA coach of the year honoree.  He was 262-115-33 (.679), including five 30-win seasons, at North Dakota.  In total, he spent 19 seasons with the Fighting Sioux, nine as an assistant and ten as the head coach.  In that time, he coached 60 NHL draft picks, 28 All-Americans, three WCHA players of the year, four WCHA rookies of the year, 40 members of the All-WCHA team and 11 All-WCHA rookie team picks.

In addition to coaching Team USA in 2010, Blais was the head coach of the U.S. National Junior Team in 1993 and an assistant in 1987 and 1988.  He was an assistant for Team USA in the 2000 IIHF World Championships.

He also worked for the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League from 2004-2007.  He served as associate head coach during the 2005-06 season and as director of player development in 2006-07.

Blais played college hockey at the University of Minnesota from 1969-73.  In 124 games, he had 56 goals and 83 assists for 139 points.  He was the Gophers’ Rookie of the Year in 1970 and was an NCAA All-Tournament selection in 1971.  After college, he played three seasons of pro hockey with the Chicago Blackhawks’ development team in Dallas, Texas.

In April of 2010, Blais signed a contract extension with UNO taking him through the 2014-2015 season.