Friday, March 5, 2010

O'Handley Earns 400th USHL Coaching Win

Press Release

Waterloo Black Hawks Head Coach P.K. O'Handley earned his 400th regular season coaching victory in the USHL on Wednesday night when his club earned a 3-2 win vs. Sioux City.

O'Handley is in his eighth season behind the bench with the Black Hawks and has guided the club to a 26-20-2 record, including a 16-5-1 mark since the start of 2010. Waterloo currently has the second most home wins (16) in the USHL and team has scored the most goals (181) in the East Division, which ranks third overall in the League.

Heading into this season, the Black Hawks have qualified for the playoffs in six of the seven seasons during O'Handley's tenure. He led the organization to their first Clark Cup title in 2003-04 and their first Anderson Cup crown in 2006-07 as regular season champions.

O'Handley's regular season record in Waterloo currently stands at 260-173-35 and he has been at the helm during four of the five 30-win seasons in club history. He also spent seven seasons (1991-98) as the head coach of the North Iowa Huskies (now the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders) winning 140 games, including the team's first division title in 1997-98 posting a 36-14-6 record. In addition, more than 130 players who played under O'Handley have gone on to play NCAA Division I hockey. Joe Pavelski (2002-04) played for O'Handley and is now in his fourth NHL season with the San Jose Sharks and recently earned a silver medal with Team USA at the Winter Olympics.

The overall USHL coaching record for O'Handley is 400-360-56. He is just the fifth coach in USHL history to reach the 400-win mark.

USHL All-Time Coaching Wins

Mike Hastings (Omaha) – 529

Dave Siciliano (Sioux City, Thunder Bay) – 522

Bob Ferguson (Des Moines, Sioux City) – 517

Steve Johnson* (Fargo, Lincoln, Fargo-Moorhead) – 463

P.K. O'Handley* (Waterloo, North Iowa) – 400

Kevin Hartzell* (Sioux Falls, St. Paul) – 360

Mark Carlson* (Cedar Rapids) – 356

*active (as of 3/3/10)

(Nathan also is a writer for Maineiacs Post to Post and the Maine Hockey Journal. He can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)

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