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miami hockey
Friends meet again as foes
RedHawks' Blasi played for and coached with Denver's Gwozdecky, now his adversary in the NCAA tournament.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
OXFORD — Whenever Miami University hockey coach Enrico Blasi and Denver coach George Gwozdecky show up on opposite ends of the same ice arena on the same day, it's a good bet something big is going on.
This time, but not for the first time, it's the opening round of the NCAA tournament.
Blasi is taking a "been there, done that" attitude toward facing Gwozdecky when the Pioneers and RedHawks square off Friday, March 27, in the West Regionals in Minneapolis, Minn.
After all, this will be the fourth time Blasi will have faced his friend and mentor as an adversary, including the 2004 NCAA tourney (a 3-2 Denver win) and the grand opening of Steve Cady Arena in 2006 (a 5-2 Miami victory).
"I don't know if it was awkward or a little bit of a different feeling," Blasi said of his first game against Gwozdecky. "But this isn't about the coaches. It's about the players and what they have to do, and our relationship isn't going to change regardless of what happens."
It's a relationship that began in 1990. Gwozdecky was the head coach of a Miami team that had finished 12-24-4 the year before and was about to go 5-29-3 that season. Blasi was an under-recruited freshman who would eventually become what Gwozdecky called "a building block" in a class critical to turning around the program.
"There was a lot of sweat and tears, and some blood, that went into turning the program around," Gwozdecky said.
Two years later that turnaround had become reality when Gwozdecky guided Miami to its first NCAA berth.
After Blasi made a stab at professional hockey with Tallahassee, Fla., of the ECHL, he turned to Gwozdecky, who had become head coach at Denver.
"He gave me a call out in Denver and said he'd like the chance to continue to learn more about coaching," said Gwozdecky, who was no fool. Blasi spent four seasons as an assistant coach at Denver.
"He was very hungry, he was like a sponge as far as his learning about coaching," Gwozdecky said.
Then Miami beckoned. Blasi was named national coach of the year in 2006 and guided the RedHawks to Miami's first No. 1 national ranking in any sport.
