Dean Blais remembers his skates clunking loudly up the wooden stairs from the basement locker rooms to the old ice sheet at Williams Arena as a freshman hockey player at the University of Minnesota in 1969.
He remembers the laughs when Gophers coach Glen Sonmor divided 30 players into two groups and everyone stayed on the ice for hourlong games with 15 a side and just one puck.
He remembers later playing for the ever-particular Herb Brooks, who would sometimes halt a drill until the puck was situated in exactly the right spot before starting again.
So Blais, who brings his Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks to town for games Friday, Nov. 30, and Saturday against the Gophers, is a bit sad thinking about the future.
With Minnesota leaving the Western Collegiate Hockey Association to join the Big Ten Conference in men's hockey next season, only Minnesota-Duluth, St. Cloud State, Bemidji State and Minnesota State Mankato of the remaining teams are assured of playing the Gophers in nonconference games over the next few seasons.
"It's kind of a shame the WCHA is being dismantled," Blais said this week. "I try not to think that this might be the last time I'm ever going to be in Mariucci Arena as a coach."
Blais grew up in International Falls, Minn., where he played high school hockey for Larry Ross, then came to Minnesota to play for Sonmor.
They are just two of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame members who steered Blais in the direction of becoming one of college
hockey's outstanding coaches. Blais later played for or worked with Brooks, Gino Gasparini and Bob Johnson, among others.
But even as a gangly high school center for the powerful Broncos of the late 1960s, Blais figured he would one day become a coach.
"Larry Ross kind of got me going," he said. "There have been a few along the way."
Blais, 61, said he does not know if Nebraska-Omaha will be the final stop in his coaching career. His contract runs two more seasons, and he hopes to stick around past that if Omaha's planned campus arena becomes reality.
He's more concerned right now with this week, when the 13th-ranked Mavericks (8-3-1) take on the third-ranked Gophers (9-2-2).
"I like our team this year," Blais said. "They come to work hard every day. We're a fast team; we play with a lot of energy."
Blais said he has borrowed from Ross, Sonmor, Brooks, Johnson and more in his coaching style in compiling a 325-168-46 coaching record that includes two national championships at North Dakota.
He's still tinkering with ideas, however.
"I hope we're doing the right things," he said.
Blais, who also coached at International Falls High School and coached Roseau to the 1990 state high school championship, often has been mentioned but never really considered as a candidate to coach the Gophers. That's OK, he said. He loved his time at North Dakota, and only the offer of becoming associate head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2004 drew him away.
That was the season lost to an NHL lockout.
"A mistake," he said. "I gave up one of the best jobs in college coaching at North Dakota."
Blais also coached the U.S. national junior team to a gold medal and became the coach/general manager with the Fargo Force of the United States Hockey League before working his way back into the college ranks in 2009 with the Mavericks.
He's happy there.
"The most fun I have every day is going on the ice for practice," Blais said. "College to me is where I belong. The games are OK, but to me, going on the ice every day, seeing the players, that's the best."
