The unprecedented success of the Yale hockey program since Keith Allain ‘80 took over in 2006 has elevated the Bulldogs to be recognized among the nation’s perennial powers. The numbers tell the story of Yale’s ascension in the Allain era.

THE NUMBERS

• 100-56-13 in five season as Yale head coach
• 3 straight NCAA Tournament appearances (2 wins)
• 2 straight regional finals
• 2 ECAC Hockey Tournament Championships
• 2 ECAC Hockey Regular Season Titles
• 4 Ivy League Championships (last 3 straight)

MOST RECENTLY

Allain, Yale’s Malcolm G. Chace Head Coach of Hockey, has led the Blue to the best win percentage (.752) among Division I teams over the last three seasons while coming within a game of two straight Frozen Four appearances.

The 2010-11 campaign was the program’s best. Allain’s squad set the school record for wins (28-7-1), became the first Bulldog team to be voted No. 1 in the national polls (2 straight months), held the top PairWise Ranking for most of the year, won four straight conference playoff games to capture the ECAC Hockey Championship and beat Air Force in OT at the NCAA East Regional as the top seed in the 16-team field. In addition, the Blue ended the season with Division I’s top offense, defense and winning percentage.

Allain's 2009-10 team became Yale's first to take consecutive ECAC Hockey regular-season titles and have 20-win seasons. The Elis, who led the nation in scoring and finished with a No. 5 ranking in the polls, capped it off with the greatest win in school history, a 3-2 decision against North Dakota in the NCAA Northeast Regional at Worcester, Mass. Yale fell to eventual national champion Boston College the next day despite scoring seven times.

The 2008-09 Tim Taylor Award as ECAC Hockey’s Coach of the Year went to Allain after he led Yale to a 24-win season, Yale’s first ECAC Tournament Championship and a No. 5 national ranking. That season College Hockey News named him national coach of the year.

FOLLOWING LEGENDS

The current Yale head coach replaced his original mentor, Tim Taylor (1976-2006), whose first team included Allain. Taylor hired Allain to be his assistant from 1982 to 1985 before the prized pupil left the collegiate game to coach and scout in Sweden. He just completed his 12th overall year at Yale: four as a student, three as an assistant coach in the early 1980s and five as head coach. Only Taylor (337, 28 years) and Murray Murdoch (278, 27) have more wins at Yale than Allain, who owns a 14-9 post season record. 

YALE CONNECTION

Allain, a former NHL and Olympics assistant, was named the 11th head coach of the Yale men's program on April 15, 2006. Allain is the third Yale graduate to take the position and the first since Holcomb York '17 led the Bulldogs from 1930 to 1938 (Lawrence M. Noble '27 coached the Elis from 1928 to 1930).

FORMER GOALIE

The starting goalie on four Bulldog squads, Allain owns the fourth-most (31) wins for a Yale netminder and ranks fourth at the school with 2,337 career saves. He owns four of the top 10 Yale single-game save totals, including 55 stops in a 7-3 loss at Minnesota on Dec. 28, 1978. Allain played two years (1980-82) of professional hockey in Sweden before suffering a career-ending injury.

NHL

Allain, the goalie coach for the St. Louis Blues from 1998 to 2006, watched his netminders give up the fewest goals in the NHL in 1999-2000, claiming the William M. Jennings Trophy. That season the Blues captured the President's Trophy for the best regular-season record in the league.

His professional hockey coaching experience also includes serving as a scout for the NHL's Nashville Predators in 1997-98 and a four-year (1993-97) stint as an assistant coach for the Washington Capitals, where he helped Jim Carey win the 1996 Vezina Trophy.

TEAM USA

His extensive international coaching career includes serving as an assistant coach for the United States Olympic Team at the 1992 (Albertville) and 2006 (Torino) Games. He was an assistant for teams that played in the 1996 (won championship) and 2004 World Cup of Hockey. His involvement with USA Hockey includes guiding the U.S. as head coach at the 2001, 2002 and 2011 IIHF World Junior Championships. He also assisted with the 2005 and 2006 U.S. National Teams at the world championships.

FAMILY

Allain is a Worcester, Mass., native who has six brothers (five of them played college hockey) and a father who had played professionally in the old Eastern League. He and his wife, Mi, have three children: Josefine, Julia and Niklas.

ALLAIN AT YALE

Season       Overall    ECAC          Ivy             Notes

2006-07     11-17-3   8-13-1 (8^th)  6-3-1 (1^st)  ECAC 1^st rd loss 

2007-08     16-14-4   9-9-4 (6^th)    3-5-2         Swept ECAC 1^st rd; fell in 3-game quarters

2008-09     24-8-2     15-5-2 (1^st)  9-1 (1^st)     Taylor Award; CHN honor; ECAC Tourney title

2009-10     21-10-3   15-5-2 (1^st)  9-1(1^st)      Beat N.Dakota in NCAAs; final loss to eventual

2010-11     28-7-1     17-4-1 (2^nd) 9-1 (1^st)     ECAC Tourney title; Beat AFA in NCAAs

ALLAIN TIMELINE

YEARS: Position/Team

1976-80: Attended Yale

1980-81: Professional player in Sweden

1982-85: Yale Assistant Coach

1985-86: Professional player/coach in Sweden

1986-89: Worked in the investment business

1989-91: Head Coach Jarfalla Hockey Club Sweden

1989-93: European Scout for Washington Capitals

1989-94: Assistant Coach Washington Capitals

1997-98:Professional Scout for Nashville Predators

1998-06: Assistant Coach St. Louis Blues

2006-07: Became Yale Head Coach

ALLAIN'S INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE

Years: Position, Team, Tournament

2011: Head Coach, U.S. Junior National, World Championships (Bronze)

2006: Assistant, U.S. National, World Championships

2006: Assistant, U.S. National, Olympic Games (Torino)

2005: Assistant, U.S. National, World Championships

2004: Goalie, U.S. National, World Cup

2002: Head, U.S. Junior National, World Championships (4-1-2)

2001: Head, U.S. Junior National, World Championships (5-2)

1996: Assistant, U.S. National, World Cup (1st)

1995: Head, U.S. National 17, Mexico Cup (2nd)

1994: Head, U.S. National 17, Pacific Cup (2nd)

1991-92: Assistant, U.S. National, Olympic Games (Albertville)

1990: Assistant, U.S. National 17, Summer Challenge

Articles on Allain

• Allain Named New Haven Register 2010 Sports Person of the Year
• New York Daily News Feature on Jan. 1, 2011
• New York Times Feature on Jan. 11, 2011

• NHL.com: Allain's arrival rejuvenates Yale
• New Haven Register: Allain Era Starts With Fond Memories
• Hartford Courant: Allain's Allegiance Brings Him Back as Yale Coach
• CSTV.com: True Blue, and a Dream Come True
• ESPN.com: Blues Assistant Allain Named Yale Hockey Coach

Keith Allain/USA Hockey Feature on Versus:

Dennis "Red" Gendron, an assistant at the University of Massachusetts (Hockey East) the last six seasons, joined the Bulldogs' staff in July of 2011.

Gendron, a three-time hockey captain and 1979 graduate of New England College (Henniker, N.H.), spent the last 21 years coaching the sport. Eleven of those seasons were with the New Jersey Devils' organization as a scout and assistant coach, including Stanley Cup Championships in 1995, 2000 and 2003. Part of his duty with the Devils included serving as head coach of the AHL affiliate in Albany for the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons.

Gendron worked on another Hockey East staff before making his initial move to ECAC Hockey. He was an assistant coach at Maine during the 1990-93 seasons, including the Black Bears' 1993 NCAA Championship campaign.

He has also been an assistant coach during the 1993, 2001 and 2002 World Junior Championships for Team USA and also worked with several U.S. Select-16 and 17 teams. His resume also includes coaching hockey, baseball and football while teaching history at Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans, Vt.

Gendron, who is fluent in French, earned a BA in secondary education from New England College and a master's in educational administration from Maine in 1993. He also played baseball at NEC.

Gendron, a former Indiana Ice (USHL) head coach and GM (2004-05), and his wife, Janet, have two daughters, Katelyn and Allison.

Dan Muse has helped the Bulldogs win ECAC Hockey regular season and tournament titles, win games at the NCAA Tournament in consecutive years and compile the best season in the history of the program. All of that in two seasons at Ingalls Rink.

Muse, an assistant at Sacred Heart University in 2008-09, came to Yale a few weeks prior to the 2009-10 season and made an immediate impact on a team trying to grab consecutive conference regular season championships and NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in the storied history of the program.  

Muse, a 2005 Stonehill College graduate, was also an assistant at Williams (Mass.) College from 2007-2008 and at Milton (Mass.) Academy from 2005-2007.

At Sacred Heart and Williams, he helped prepare and execute training and practice plans and worked primarily with forwards. He also helped develop scouting reports and break down video segments using Gamebreaker software while assisting with recruiting efforts. Muse has also coached at the Massachusetts Hockey Satellite Training Program and at USA Hockey's Select 14 Development Camps (2006-2008) and USA Select 16 Camp (2009, 2010) as well as several other youth camps and training programs throughout the Bay State.

Muse, who earned a B.A. in criminal justice at Stonehill, served as assistant captain for the Chieftains his senior year and received the team's most improved player award in 2003. He was named to multiple ECAC Northeast/ Northeast-10 All-Academic Hockey Teams and is a recipient of the Canton (Mass.) High School Hockey Distinguished Alumni Award (2007).

Muse and his wife, Maureen, reside in Clinton.

Eric Lind, a 2001 University of New Hampshire graduate and former Wildcat hockey player, began as a Yale assistant during the 2006-07 season and has helped the program rise to national prominence.

The 1997 Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick played nine seasons of professional (IHL,ECHL, UHL, CHL, EIHL) hockey, including some as captain and player/coach, before he began coaching full-time.

During his tenure with Greenville Grrrowl he captained them to a Kelly Cup Championship. Lind has been coaching hockey for 12 years and has a master level coaching certification from USA Hockey.

He is the head of player development for the North American Hockey School and is regarded as a premiere power-skating instructor who is highly respected by the many NHL, AHL, ECHL and NCAA Division I players he works with. Over the past five years, Lind has coached elite teams in organization such as Mid-Fairfield, Greenwich Blues and Ridgefield Youth Hockey.

Eric was a FCIAC MVP his sophomore year at New Canaan (Conn.) High School before becoming a two-time New England Prep Player of the Year at Avon Old Farms. He made two NCAA Frozen Four appearances with UNH and played for Team USA's U16 and U17 squads at the World Junior Friendship Series.

Lind, currently pursuing his masters in sport management, hails from an impressive heritage of skating experience. He is the grandson of hall of fame skating coach Otto Gold, who contributed significantly to the success of Canadian and American skaters on the international stage. His mother, Frances Gold Lind, was an alternate for the Canadian Olympic Figuring Skating Team.

Joe Maher, a former hockey head coach and player and a sports physiologist, was named Yale's assistant strength & conditioning coach in August of 2007 after serving in a similar role at the University of Richmond for two years. His work with the Yale hockey team has been a significant factor in its ascencion to national prominence.

Maher was the assistant S&C coach at Richmond from 2005 to 2007 while also serving as head coach of the U-16AA Richmond Royals hockey club. His Richmond football squad won an Atlantic-10 Championship under his watch.

Prior to that, he was a graduate assistant in the Kinesiology Department at Louisiana State University and a coach at the USA Weightlifting Development Center in Shreveport, La., from 2004 to 2005.

Maher, who is the S&C coach for the 2011 U.S. Junior National Team, also served as assistant sports physiologist at the U.S. Olympic Center's Athlete Performance Laboratory. He played hockey at the University of Rhode Island and coached and competed in 2005 Collegiate National Weightlifting Championships.

In addition, Maher, a New Jersey native who has authored numerous articles on S&C and owns a masters in education, coached and co-directed the 2004 American Open Championships, co-directed the 2005 Pan-American Championships and coached the 2005 Junior National Championships. He also worked on Keith Allain's U.S. Team staff during the 2010-11 IIHF World Junior Championships (bronze medal).

Maher's certifications include: Strength and Conditioning Specialist (National Strength and Conditioning Association); Weightlifting Senior Coach-In Process (USA Weightlifting); First Aid, CPR, AED (American Red Cross); USA Hockey Level 3 (In-Process of Level 4).