Men’s hockey names new assistant coach

Men’s hockey head coach Keith Allain ’80 has found a new lieutenant.

The Athletics Department announced on Thursday that former University of Massachusetts assistant coach Dennis “Red” Gendron will serve as hockey team’s associate head coach next year.

“We are excited to have someone with [Gendron’s] experience on our staff,” Allain said in a statement. “I’ve known [Gendron] for 30 years and think he will be a huge addition to our program.”

Gendron has spent the past 21 years coaching hockey, including stints at the professional, college, and junior levels. He spent 11 years in the New Jersey Devils organization, and was head coach of the team’s American Hockey League affiliate in Albany between 2002 and 2004. He also owns one item that next year’s team has named as its top priority: an NCAA championship ring. Gendron was an assistant coach at Maine when the Black Bears won the 1993 collegiate crown.

Gendron will have to fill the shoes of former associate head coach Kyle Wallack, who was known for his affable manner and skill for recruiting student-athletes. Wallack left Yale in late May to take over as the head coach and general manager of the United States Hockey League’s Indiana Ice.

The Ice connect the outgoing and incoming coaches — Gendron served in Wallack’s new role in Indiana for the 2004-05 season.

Gendron — whose fluency in French could help the Elis attract talent from the hockey hotbed of Quebec — was a three-time hockey captain at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire.

2011-2012 ECAC Hockey Schedule Released

The ECAC announced on Friday its teams’ schedules for the upcoming season. Most of the conference’s non-Ivy League teams kick off their schedules on October 7. Ivy League teams will open their seasons on October 29, when Yale seeks to defend its Ivy Shootout title against Brown, Dartmouth, and Princeton.

Yale’s non-conference highlights include a home game against perennial powerhouse Boston College on Nov. 26. It will be the first meeting between the two teams since BC knocked Yale out of the 2010 NCAA Championship Tournament with a wild 9-7 victory two years ago. Yale will also travel to play Massachusetts, Gendron’s former team, on Dec. 7.