One of the more interesting subplots in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, which begins Friday, is yet another postseason meeting between former Air Force Director of Hockey Operations Steve Miller and a program he spent nearly two decades with.
Miller, now Ohio State’s associate head coach, will face Denver, the school coached at as an assistant and associate head coach under George Gwozdecky. It will mark the third time in five seasons and second in a row since Miller left Denver that he is coaching against the Pioneers.
Those two teams are part of a West Regional that also includes a pair of other teams the Falcons are very familiar with – St. Cloud State and AIC. St. Cloud State enters the NCAAs as the top seed for the second year in a row, the first time that’s happened. Last season, Air Force knocked off the Huskies in a West Regional opener to reach their second elite eight in a row and third in program history.
AIC, meanwhile, is making its first NCAA Tournament appearance after winning Atlantic Hockey’s regular-season and playoff titles. The Yellowjackets beat Niagara in overtime in the championship game, ending a Purple Eagles run that included knocking out Air Force in a hotly contested AHC quarterfinal series at Cadet Arena two weeks ago.
Miller’s Academy impact
Miller’s arrival at the Academy in 2015 came a little more than a year after he left Denver’s staff after Jim Montgomery‘s first year as coach. Miller spent a “gap year” as Providence’s associate head coach and helped the Friars win the NCAA championship.
He proved to be an excellent fit at Air Force with coach Frank Serratore and assistants Andy Berg and Joe Doyle, and it showed. The Falcons reached the AHC semifinals in 2016, losing in overtime to RIT, and then reached the NCAA elite eight in 2017.
In between, Miller served as an assistant for Team USA’s gold-medal-winning World Junior Championship team in January 2017.
“He’s really detailed,” Serratore said. “He’s got good instincts. As hockey coaches, we’re not splitting atoms, so in order to survive we have to work hard and have good instincts, and he does.
“His greatest strength is he doesn’t possess a weakness.”
Miller wielded a strong influence with the Falcons players. Several remain close to him, and a handful of this season’s seniors routinely mentioned how the affable man known as “Killer” helped their games and helped the team. But it extended beyond what he could do for them.
Steve Miller has helped Miami, Denver, Providence, Air Force and Ohio State reach the NCAA Tournament. Photo courtesy Air Force Athletics
“First of all, Killer loves the game, is passionate about it,” Serratore said. “He’s a hard-working, driven guy. But he cares about the players. As the saying goes, ‘nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.’
“The boys aren’t going to embrace someone if they only complain about their game. If you’re there every day helping them, in the trenches, they respect that.”
Another lasting impact of Miller’s on the Falcons, and it was an area of clear strength again this season, was with their penalty kill.
“He changed our penalty kill system, that was his biggest impact,” Serratore said. “Since then we’ve been in the top five in the country every year. He tidied up some other things in our neutral zone, too.”
The next chapter
Miller took the job at Ohio State in 2017 after the Falcons’ stirring run in that spring’s tournament. As fate would have it, the Buckeyes met Denver in the NCAA Tournament last spring and throttled the high-flying Pioneers, 5-1, in a regional final. Providence had accomplished the same thing in 2015.
In between, the Falcons gained their first win against DU in more than seven years in the first regular-season game Miller was on staff at Air Force in October, 2015.
“A big factor in the success his teams have is Killer has no personal agenda,” Gwozdecky said. “There are assistants who recruit players, then once they’re signed hand them off to the staff. Steve never did that. He stayed strong and committed to guys all four years they were in the program.”
That strong suit – his recruiting ability – wasn’t the factor at Air Force that it was at Denver, where he recruited 45 NHL draft picks, 17 All-Americans and two Hobey Baker winners.
“He’s an extraordinary recruiter,” Gwozdecky said. “He’s a great evaluator of talent, and he has a unique ability to relate to younger players and get them to perform. Every single guy on the team loved him. He was always honest, never pulled any punches.”
Add it up and one question begs to be asked about the former Falcons assistant, whose impact has far outweighed his time spent in the program.
“Miami is looking for a coach,” Serratore said. “Steve got his graduate degree there and started his career under George there. Why wouldn’t they look at him to be their next head coach?
“They would be very wise to look in his direction. He’s an alum, he knows the program. It seems like a natural fit to me.”
©First Line Editorial 2017-19
