Journal Sports Editor

MARQUETTE — Not many sports programs can boast having just four head coaches in a nearly half-century of their history.

Northern Michigan University hockey is one of them.

The university announced Wednesday and will introduce Friday just its fourth head coach for its premier program, men’s ice hockey. Dave Shyiak, 57, will come back to the Wildcats after serving as associate head coach at St. Cloud State in St. Cloud, Minnesota, for the past four years.

Dave Shyiak — 1990 NMU hockey team photo

The public is invited to the Wildcat Room near the Berry Events Center for the introductory news conference that will also include the media to introduce Shyiak at 11 a.m. Friday.

NMU athletic director Rick Comley — the Wildcats’ first head coach who put in 26 years in that position from 1976 to 2002 — had to have thought of Shyiak immediately when Grant Potulny announced he was leaving Marquette just over two weeks ago.

That’s because Shyiak was not only a key player — actually a captain — of Comley’s 1991 NCAA national championship team, but the 1993 NMU graduate and native of Brandon, Manitoba, served as an assistant coach at Northern for Comley and his successor, Walt Kyle, for a decade from 1995 to 2005.

Shyiak rose through the Wildcats’ coaching ranks from recruiting coordinator until he became associate head coach in 2002.

He left Northern in 2005 and has had several head coaching and associate head coaching jobs in other college hockey programs since.

Dave Shyiak — on the St. Cloud State hockey cocaching staff

Kyle — who was also a Comley assistant both during the national championship season and through the end of Comley’s tenure at Northern — was the school’s second head coach from 2002-17, while Potulny was the third from 2017 until earlier this month.

Starting as an NMU player in 1987, Shyiak was a senior on the 1990-91 national championship team as he also was on teams that won WCHA playoff titles in 1989 and 1991.

“I’m thrilled that Dave Shyiak will be returning to campus to lead our hockey program,” Comley said in an NMU Sports Information press release on Wednesday morning. “Dave was a part of our national championship team and helped keep our program at an extremely high level as an assistant coach for many years.

“Dave is the right person, at the right time, in the right place to lead Northern Michigan back to a national level of success.”

Shyiak has a mutual respect for his alma mater.

Associate head coach Dave Shyiak is on the bench during a St. Cloud State hockey game. (Photo courtesy St. Cloud State hockey)

“This is an incredible opportunity to return to my home away from home,” Shyiak said in the same NMU SI release. “Northern Michigan and Marquette are really special to me and my family. We have remained close to a lot of our friends and fellow alums in the Upper Peninsula.

“To start as a student-athlete in 1987 and come full circle to lead the hockey program as head coach is something for which I will forever be grateful.

“I want to thank President (Brock) Tessman and Rick Comley for believing in me. I feel honored and privileged, and I will do everything I can to make this university and community proud.”

Shyiak has been behind the bench in college hockey arena for more than a thousand games in better than a quarter-century of coaching.

He comes from St. Cloud State, a prominent member of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference that also includes nationally high-profile schools like North Dakota and Denver.

Associate head coach Dave Shyiak is on the bench during a St. Cloud State hockey game. (Photo courtesy St. Cloud State hockey)

As associate head coach, he’s helped the Huskies make three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, including reaching the national championship game in 2021 before losing to Massachusetts.

Under Shyiak’s guidance, six SCSU defensemen have earned All-NCHC honors, the NMU SI release said. Last season, blueliner Dylan Anhorn was named an AHCA-CCM Hockey Men’s Second Team West All-American.

Going backward in time from St. Cloud, Shyiak was previously associate head coach at Western Michigan from 2014-20. In Kalamazoo, he helped the Broncos gain an NCAA Tournament berth in 2017, along with earning home ice in the NCHC playoffs in 2017, 2019 and 2020.

Just before Western, Shyiak worked as an amateur scout for the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs organization from 2013-14.

His first collegiate head coaching position was at Alaska-Anchorage from 2005-13. He ranks as the Seawolves’ all-time leader in victories as a coach during the WCHA era with 80 wins, and helped UAA advance to the WCHA Final Five.

Associate head coach Dave Shyiak is on the bench during a St. Cloud State hockey game. (Photo courtesy St. Cloud State hockey)

Right after finishing his playing career at NMU, Shyiak was a player-coach for a season with the Murrayfield Racers of the Super League-British Ice Hockey in 1991-92.

In 1994-95, Shyiak was the general manager and head coach for the Merritt Centennials of the British Columbia Junior Hockey League, and his junior hockey coaching resume also includes a season as head coach of the Kimberley Dynamiters of the Rocky Mountain Junior Hockey League in 1993-94.

An evaluator for the USA Hockey selection camps in Michigan from 2015-20, Shyiak served as a coach at the USA Hockey national selection camp in Buffalo, N.Y., in 2020. He has also served as a guest coach for the Washington Capitals Development Camp in 2010 and the Swedish National Under-20 team camp in 2009.

Dave and his wife, Lucia — the former Lucia Peirera, a two-time All-American volleyball standout at NMU — have three children, Kristian, Sheldon and Isabela.

Steve Brownlee can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 552. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.

Associate head coach Dave Shyiak instructs a group of St. Cloud State hockey players during practice in St. Cloud, Minn. (Photo courtesy St. Cloud State hockey)

Northern Michigan University hockey captains, including Dave Skyiak, center, hold the NCAA championship trophy after the Wildcats defeated Boston University 8-7 in triple overtime to clinch the title on March 30, 1991, in St. Paul, MInn. (Photo courtesy NMU archives)