Men's Ice Hockey
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- gadowsky@princeton.edu
- Phone:
- (609) 258-6616
Guy Gadowsky, the architect of Princeton’s rise to the top of the ECAC, enters his seventh season as the head coach of men’s hockey at Princeton University. In his first five years behind the Princeton bench, the Tigers have improved on their win totals each season, including a program-record 22 wins in 2008-09 and an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament. That season, Princeton won its ECAC quarterfinal series and made it second-straight appearance at the ECAC Championships in Albany.
A season earlier, Gadowsky led Princeton to both the ECAC and Ivy League championships and Princeton's first NCAA tournament berth since 1998. Princeton won 16 of 21 games to finish second in the ECAC regular season standings and won the league tournament championship by defeating Harvard in the title game. Following the season, Gadowsky was honored as the ECAC Hockey Coach of the Year and was a finalist for the national award. With the award, Gadowsky has now received coach of the year honors in every league in which he has coached.
Gadowsky has led Princeton to four-straight home ice playoff series, earning a first-round series in 2007 and 2010 and a quarterfinal series in 2008 and 2009. Gadowsky has also coached two ECAC and Ivy League Players of the Year as Lee Jubinville (2008) and Zane Kalemba (2009) each won the award in their junior seasons.
Gadowsky is now 88-96-13 through six seasons at Princeton. In addition to success at Princeton, Gadowsky’s players have gone on to be successful at the professional level. In five years at Princeton, Gadowsky has had 21 players go on to sign professional contracts, including three seniors from the 2009-10 squad. He has also seen three of his players at Princeton appear in the NHL. Gadowsky inherited a Princeton squad that had won eight games over the two seasons prior to his arrival.
Gadowsky spent five seasons at Alaska-Fairbanks, building a 68-87-22 overall record and a 50-70-20 record in the CCHA. When he took over the reins in Fairbanks, he inherited a team that had not won more than 14 games and had lost more than 20 games in the previous five seasons since joining the CCHA. After two rebuilding seasons, Gadowsky led the Nanooks to their first 20-win season in 2001-02 as the team finished with a 22-12-3 record and was ranked 11th nationally at the end of the season. He followed that up with 15 wins the following season and 16 his last season at UAF. Plus, in two of the past three seasons, Alaska Fairbanks has hosted the first round of the CCHA playoffs, a feat never accomplished prior to Gadowsky’s arrival.
During his tenure with the Nanooks, his teams set school records for team grade point average, wins and game attendance.
Gadowsky has been successful at every level of hockey and has earned coach of the year honors in each league in which he has coached before Princeton. He was the Central Collegiate Hockey Association’s Coach of the Year in 2002 and a finalist for the NCAA Division I Coach of the Year that season. He also received recognition by the West Coast Hockey League and Roller Hockey International.
Before joining Fairbanks, Gadowsky served as the head coach and Director of Hockey Operations for the Fresno Falcons of the WCHL. He coached three seasons and led the Falcons to the WCHL playoffs each year. He left Fresno as the Falcon’s winningest coach in franchise history, compiling a 106-80-12 record and a .566 winning percentage. He earned the WCHL’s Coach of the Year award in 1997 after the Falcons posted a 38-20-6 record in his first season.
Gadowsky also has coaching experience in Roller Hockey International, serving as the head coach of the Oklahoma Coyotes in 1996 and the San Jose Rhinos from 1997 to 1999. He was the RHI Coach of the Year in 1997 after the Rhinos went 15-7 and won the Western Conference title. He also spent a season as an assistant coach with the Richmond Renegades of the East Coast Hockey League.
The Edmonton, Alberta, native began coaching following a seven-year professional playing career. He attended Colorado College from 1986-1989 and earned a bachelor’s degree in economics. On the ice, he served as the team captain his senior year and won the team’s Rodman Award, given for outstanding leadership and sportsmanship. The three-time Western Collegiate Hockey Association All-Academic Team member amassed 46 career points in 134 career games.
Upon graduation, Gadowsky began a professional playing career that saw him have stops with the ECHL’s Richmond Renegades, the International Hockey League’s San Diego Gulls and the American Hockey League’s St. John’s Maple Leafs and Prince Edward Island Senators. Gadowsky spent a portion of the 1993-94 season playing with the Canadian National Team and he scored three goals and added three assists for Canada in international competition.
In 1995 he joined Fresno and enjoyed the best season of his pro career, scoring 52 goals and adding 29 assists for 81 points in 51 games. That season he was a first-team all-star and the won the WCHL’s Most Valuable Player Award. He also served as a player/coach that season before taking over head-coaching responsibilities the following season. He also played professionally in Sweden, Holland and Austria.
He and his wife have two sons, Mac and Magnus, and a daughter Mia. The Gadowskys reside in the Princeton area.
