Don Lucia’s retirement from coaching created a brief diversion among college hockey coaches and media still immersed in their season. In particular, the three Minnesota-based programs in the NCAA men’s tournament fielded questions on the ex-Gopher bench boss’ legacy.
Besides nearly two decades in the State of Hockey, Lucia logged another dozen years at two other Division I programs. But his exit from the coaching fraternity hardly renders his breed extinct any more than it spawns a new one.
College hockey coaches making a Midas-like impact at more than one school transcends the sport’s entire NCAA history. Within four days of Lucia’s announcement last week, two men in his club crossed paths with a 2018 Frozen Four ticket on the line. Another one left the coaching ranks at the end of last season.
All four, plus six others, qualify for this list based on the way they put and/or kept at least two programs on the national radar.
Honorable mention: Bob Johnson
The late, great Badger Bob got his nickname for a reason. After three unremarkable years at Colorado College, he built his legacy among college hockey coaches at Wisconsin. He had but one losing season out of 16 in Madison, where he oversaw seven Frozen Fours, four trips to the final and three championships.
10. Nate Leaman
When Leaman arrived at Union in 2003, the Dutchmen were coming off six straight losing seasons. He finally delivered them a winning campaign in 2007-08. Three years later, his freshmen from that icebreaker piloted an ECAC regular-season and postseason title run as seniors.
In addition to those crowns and the automatic bid to the national tournament, an eventful 2011 also yielded a Spencer Penrose Award and a job offer from Providence for Leaman. He accepted the latter, and resurged a PC program that had just brooked five straight losing seasons.
The Friars are now riding a streak of five straight NCAA tournaments, including a 2015 championship, under his guidance. Depending on what he does with his next rookie class, Leaman could leap-frog a few spots here before said players graduate.
9. Jeff Sauer
Like Johnson before him, Sauer had limited success with CC before building constant winners in Wisconsin.
If nothing else, Sauer did take the Tigers to one NCAA tournament (1978) during his 11-year tenure. But over two decades in Madison, he trumped that track record with 12 bracket appearances.
Upon inheriting a championship-caliber bunch of Badgers in 1982, Sauer promptly led the program to the 1983 championship. Wisconsin would take until 1988 to return to the tournament, but went to eight straight starting that year. And Sauer’s squad would reach two more Frozen Fours, winning another title in 1990.
8. George Gwozdecky
By the time Gwozdecky came to Miami, the RedHawks had one winning season (18-17-1 in 1982-83) in their chronicles. Within three years of his tutelage, they had another (18-16-6 in 1991-92). And the next year, they surged to a 27-9-5 finish and amassed their first-ever bid to the NCAA tournament. For that, the coach earned his first of two Spencer Penrose Awards.
After crossing the 20-win plateau once more, Gwozdecky left Miami for Denver in 1994. Save for two down years later that decade, he had the Pioneers in consistent contention, taking them to 12 tournaments in a 19-year tenure.
The middle of that reign yielded the peak via back-to-back national titles in 2004 and 2005. However, those were Gwozdecky’s only two Frozen Four appearances. The Pioneers bowed out of six straight regionals leading up to his exit in 2013.
7. Len Ceglarski
Only a lack of a national championship keeps Ceglarski from ranking any higher. His transcript is otherwise rich with all other possible testaments to excellence.
Over 34 seasons between Clarkson and Boston College, Ceglarski nabbed a still-peerless three Spencer Penrose Awards. He split his first honor with Michigan State’s Amo Bessone in 1965-66, his eighth year with the Golden Knights. At the time, he had just helped his squad to its second appearance in the national final.
Ceglarski won his second Penrose in his first year at BC, which reached the 1973 Frozen Four that season. He took the Eagles to the national final five years later, then nabbed another Frozen Four passport and another Penrose in 1985.
All told, Ceglarski orchestrated four NCAA championship runners-up, four national semifinalists, five quarterfinalists and 30 winning teams.
6. Dean Blais
The third year of Blais’ run of 18 nonconsecutive seasons at North Dakota and Nebraska-Omaha was one of utmost charm. A 12-win improvement from 19 to 31 translated to the 1997 national championship for UND.
For the balance of Blais’ decade in Grand Forks, he only missed one other national tournament. And he made it to two more national finals, winning again in 2000, then falling an overtime goal short of a repeat.
After a diversion to the pros, he went to inherit yet another repeatedly limboing program at Omaha. He would fetch less spectacular results on the whole, but did oversee a pair of milestones with the Mavericks. They reached their first NCAA tournament in 2011, then their first Frozen Four (Blais’ fourth) in 2015.
5. Rick Comley
Comley cultivated success in bunches over a 38-year ride through three Michigan institutions.
After three years at his alma mater, Lake Superior State, he shuffled west to Northern Michigan. His fourth and fifth year saw the Wildcats reach the Frozen Four, finishing as finalists in 1980 and third place in 1981.
Another sugar rush saw Comley’s club reach four national brackets in five years, picking up the 1991 trophy in the middle of that run. After moving downstate to East Lansing, he took the Michigan State Spartans to another four tournaments in a five-year span. And once again, one of those years (2007) was a banner year.
4. Don Lucia
Over his 31 seasons with Alaska-Fairbanks, Colorado College and Minnesota, Lucia only brooked two losing records. Both were when he and the then-independent Nanooks were just getting started together.
From his 1993 arrival in Colorado Springs onward, Lucia never had a senior class come and go without at least one bid to the national bracket. He would take the Tigers to five straight tournaments before his next job change. His third of six CC squads was one goal away from a title, losing to Michigan in 1996. And they returned to the Frozen Four semifinals the next year.
Lucia’s personal progression continued with the Gophers. In 19 years at his native state’s signature school, he logged 13 NCAA tournaments, five Frozen Fours, three finals and two championships.
3. Jeff Jackson
At 35, Jackson took the torch from Frank Anzalone at Lake Superior State when the Lakers had set a new standard. They were coming off three straight NCAA tournaments and their first Frozen Four, which ended in a 1988 championship.
In a six-year stay in Sault Ste. Marie, Jackson cultivated six more tournament bids, three more trips to the final and two more titles. In the three years they fell short of the semifinals, Jackson’s Lakers made it to the second round.
Jackson subsequently sought new challenges at the U.S. National Team Development Program, only to return to the college ranks. With Notre Dame, he was tasked with turning around a perennial middleweight that had just plummeted to a five-win 2004-05 season.
Within two years of Jackson’s work, the Fighting Irish were 32-7-3 and CCHA champions. They returned to the national bracket the next season, reaching a program-first Frozen Four and title game. In the decade since, Jackson’s pupils have made seven more tournaments and three more Frozen Fours.
2. Ron Mason
Over a 36-year career that touched LSSU, Bowling Green and Michigan State, Mason brooked only three losing seasons. After two straight to start his Spartans tenure, he never missed consecutive NCAA tournaments for the balance of his career.
Immediately before East Lansing, he had taken the BGSU Falcons to three straight national tournaments. He would go there 19 times in 23 years with the Spartans, who reached eight Frozen Fours on his watch. Those journeys yielded two wins in the now-defunct third-place game, a national title in 1986 and a return to the final in 1987.
When Mason retired from coaching in 2002, he held an NCAA-record 924 individual victories. His successor at Bowling Green from 1979 would finally eclipse that mark 10-and-a-half seasons later.
1. Jerry York
Granted, it took York an extra five seasons to match and surpass Mason in the night-to-night win column. In addition, he had more growing pains at the three programs he has overseen, accruing 10 losing seasons.
Then again, he has also finished .500 twice and amassed 34 winning records. More critically, he supersedes his competitors with his cumulative banner count from BGSU and BC.
The Falcons’ lone Frozen Four under York’s guidance culminated in a quadruple-overtime 1984 championship triumph over Minnesota-Duluth. A decade later, he moved on to his alma mater, where the first class to spend a whole college career with him came within one goal of another OT title-taker.
BC finally broke through with a championship (also decided in OT) in 2001. That season’s senior class had just been to four straight Frozen Fours. York has taken the Eagles to another eight in the 17 years since.
Another generation would reach three straight national finals, winning on its third try in 2008. York’s capstone class added two more banners in 2010 and 2012.
And while he never took his first employer, Clarkson, to the dance, York nabbed a little hardware there as well. He claimed his lone Penrose Award in 1977 after guiding the Golden Knights to first place in the ECAC.
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