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Mike Gabinet has been named the new head hockey coach at the University of Omaha. Gabinet takes over for Dean Blais who stepped down after eight seasons behind the Mavericks’ bench.“We undertook an extensive search, and Mike rose to the top of our candidate pool because of his detailed, comprehensive approach to creating a sustainable culture of excellence,” said Omaha Vice Chancellor of Athletics Trev Alberts. “He has the passion and understanding of what it means to be a Maverick, and he has the ability to institute the kind of structure and attention to detail that will allow us to be successful in college hockey’s toughest conference," said Alberts.“It also was very important to us to get the feedback from the players and to a man, they all endorsed Mike as the kind of coach who is a great teacher and someone who could help our program take the next step,” said Alberts.Gabinet came to UNO as its associate head coach in April of 2016 and joined the program after a successful college coaching career in his native country of Canada. “It is a great moment for a program like ours to have an alumnus take over as its head coach,” said associate athletic director Mike Kemp. Kemp was the head coach of the program for the first 12 years. “I have known Mike since he was a junior player in Canada, and I always admired him as a character person who was a great leader and someone who cared about his teammates. As a player, he analyzed what we did and made respectful suggestions. He was a student of the game, even as a student-athlete," said Kemp“As I followed his career, I saw the same traits. He has a great mind for the game and is a great on-ice teacher,” Kemp added. “That was evident in our power play this year. Mike coached our power play unit to be the best in the NCHC this past season, one year after it was ranked seventh out of eight teams. In fact, it was best power play we’ve had since we led the nation in 2007-08," said Kemp“Moving forward,we think Mike can not only help us excel on the ice but also work hard in the community to strengthen the bonds we have with our fans, alumni and donors.”“I’m grateful for this opportunity to be the head coach of my alma mater and excited to build on what’s been established here by Mike Kemp and Dean Blaise," said Gabinet. “The Omaha community has been a great supporter of our program, and I’m looking forward to building that bond with our fans and my fellow alumni, many of whom still live in the area,” added Gabinet. “I’m amazed by how far UNO has come since my playing days and I’m excited about where we’re going.”“I came to Omaha last year because of my passion for this program and the great experience I had here as a student-athlete. That’s one of the reasons why my wife and I are looking forward to raising our family here," said Gabinet. Before joining the Mavericks, Gabinet was the head coach of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in 2015-16. He led the Ooks to the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference Championship with a 36-0 record, only the second time in 51 years that a team had finished undefeated in the conference. Gabinet was named ACAC Coach of the Year and became the first rookie head coach to guide his team to an undefeated season in Canadian college hockey history. Prior to that, he was an associate coach at NAIT for three seasons.