Gophers assistant hockey coach Mike Hastings is returning to Omaha, Neb.

Hastings resigned after one season at the university to be the associate head coach at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

He was the first hire of the Mavericks’ new head coach, Dean Blais.

“Dean told Mike that whoever takes this [the associate head coach] position will have a great chace to replace him down the line,” Gophers coach Don Lucia said. “I enjoyed my year with Mike and wish him the best.”

Blais is 58.

Grant Potulny, who will be a first year volunteer assistant this coming season, will temporarily take over Hastings’ duties. But it won’t be for long.

“I hope to have the position filled by mid-July,” Lucia said.

Lucia probably has a short list of candidates from a year ago when he hired Hastings.

Hastings was the coach and general manager of the Omaha Lancers of the USHL for 14 years. His career record was 529-210-56 and he never had a losing season with the Lancers.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 1:34 pm and is filed under Gophers men's hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.