May 28, 2009
E-MAIL 
Blais Named 2010 World Junior Coach
CHN Staff Report
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Dean Blais, former two-time national champion coach at North Dakota and currently head coach and general manager for the USHL's Fargo Force, has been selected as head coach of the 2010 U.S. National Junior Team, it was announced today by USA Hockey.
USA Hockey also announced that Jim Johannson, assistant executive director of hockey operations at USA Hockey, will serve as the general manager of the 2010 U.S. National Junior Team; and former Yale coach Tim Taylor, an assistant coach at USA Hockey's National Team Development Program and head coach of the 1994 U.S. Olympic Men's Ice Hockey Team, will serve as the team's director of player personnel.
The U.S. National Junior Team will compete at the 2010 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, Dec. 26, 2009 - Jan. 5, 2010, in Saskatoon and Regina, Saskatchewan.
Blais, the 2009 USHL Coach of the Year, recently finished leading the Force to the USHL's Clark Cup finals in their first year of play.
Blais, a player on the U.S. World Junior team in 1973, was an assistant for the team in 1988 and 1989. He was the head coach of the U.S. National Junior Team in 1994 and was slated for the same role in 2005, but resigned his position after accepting the job as associate head coach of the National Hockey League's Columbus Blue Jackets in the summer of 2004.
A native of International Falls, Minn., Blais played four years of college hockey at Minnesota before joining the U.S. National Team in 1973. After skating three years with the Chicago Blackhawks' affiliate in Dallas, he began his coaching career in 1976-77 as an assistant at Minnesota. He then served as the head coach at Minot (N.D.) High School from 1977-80, before a nine-year stint as an assistant men's ice hockey coach at North Dakota.
Blais left UND to be the head hockey coach at Roseau (Minn.) High School in 1989-90 and guided his team to the Minnesota State High School title. He returned to North Dakota as head coach in 1994. During his 10-year tenure, he led the Fighting Sioux to seven NCAA tournament appearances, NCAA Division I championships in 1997 and 2000, and an overall record of 262-115-33 (.679).
