Now three years into his tenure as the head coach, Dean Blais has had an indelible influence on University of Nebraska Omaha hockey, burnishing his already exceptional credentials as one of the nation’s finest coaches. Since coming to Omaha, Blais has led the Mavericks to two 20-win seasons, doing so for just the second time in school history and in the process, earned his 300th career win.
In 2011-12, Blais led the Mavericks to a stunning upset of No. 1-ranked, defending national champion Minnesota Duluth, a win that ended UMD’s 17-game unbeaten streak. The win was reminiscent of his first year at UNO when the Mavericks beat top-ranked Miami in Oxford, Ohio to end the RedHawks’ 23-game unbeaten streak against fellow CCHA teams on Feb. 20, 2010.
The Mavericks were another tough team to play on the road during the 2011-12 season, especially in conference play. The Mavs were 6-5-3 on the road in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, a record that included big wins at Wisconsin, Bemidji State, North Dakota, Michigan Tech and Colorado College.
Under Blais’ guidance, UNO continued its trend of attracting big crowds. The Mavericks drew a school-record crowd of 16,138 for the opener of their series with Minnesota Duluth, the first sellout of the CenturyLink Center in school history.
Blais once again found himself on the international stage in 2011-12, coaching Team USA in the 2012 World Junior Championship in Calgary. It was the second time in three years he had led the Americans. Blais and company won the gold medal in 2010.
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.
The Mavericks got stronger as the year progressed. The team was just 10-11-5 entering a weekend series with Northern Michigan in January. The Mavs had already lost two 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 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. They followed with their win over No. 1 Miami and closed with a 3-2 win over then-sixth ranked Bemidji State.
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 of 2010, 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.
During the 2010-11 season, Blais led UNO into the WCHA where the Mavs finished third after being chosen to finish eighth and ninth in two pre-season polls. UNO returned to the NCAA playoffs for just the second time in school history and achieved a national ranking of fourth for four straight weeks, the highest in school history.
Under Blais’ leadership, the Mavericks were 21-16-2 and 17-9-2 in their first WCHA season. The third-place finish was the highest ever for the Mavs in conference play. UNO’s strong showing earned Blais the nod as the WCHA’s Coach of the Year and put him in the running for the Spencer Penrose Trophy as Division I hockey’s top coach. It wasn’t difficult to see why Blais earned the accolades. The Mavericks swept their first-ever WCHA series, winning twice at Minnesota. They followed that with a split of a non-conference series at Michigan, a place they had won just once previously. Before Christmas, the Mavericks had won and tied at always-tough St. Cloud State and stunned pre-season favorite North Dakota, winning 1-0 at home on a goal with .3 seconds remaining in regulation.
The second half of the year featured another stunning win over North Dakota, this time by an 8-4 tally at vaunted Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks. Typical of Blais’ teams, the Mavericks surged down the stretch with back-to-back sweeps of St. Cloud and Wisconsin and hard-fought splits with Denver and at eventual national champion Minnesota Duluth. Blais earned win number 300 with a 4-3 win over the Badgers on Feb. 12 to complete the sweep.
UNO’s return to the NCAA playoffs was short-lived as the Mavericks lost to Michigan 3-2 in overtime in the regional semifinals, but Blais once again was successful in further raising the expectations of his players and UNO fans alike. Seven players registered career highs in either goals, assists or points.
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. North Dakota was the runner 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 a four-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 UND, nine as an assistant and 10 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 and 2012, 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.
He began his college career as an assistant at Minnesota in 1976-77 and then was the head coach at Minot (N.D.) High School from 1977-80 before his stint as an assistant at North Dakota.
Blais left UND to be the head coach at Roseau (Minn.) High School in 1989-90 where he led his team to the Minnesota State Championship. His team was the conference and regional champion in 1991. He then left to serve as assistant coach of the U.S. Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Team that took fourth place in the Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, France.
After the Olympics, Blais returned to the high school ranks as athletic director and hockey coach at International Falls (Minn.) High School before rejoining North Dakota as head coach in 1994.
In April of 2010, Blais signed a contract extension with UNO taking him through the 2014-15 season.
Blais is the father of three grown children: Sarah, Ben and Mary Beth.
