Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bylsma Leads Penguins To Stanley Cup
June 15, 2009 | Ice Hockey
Former Falcon Player Realizes Every Players Dream As Penguin Head Coach
Former Bowling Green State University winger Dan Bylsma realized the dream of every person who has ever put on a pair of skates Friday night - winning the Stanley Cup.
Bylsma led the Pittsburgh Penguins to the third title in franchise history with their 2-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Friday in Game 7 of the Finals series.
Bylsma took over a floundering team on Feb. 15 and quickly transformed them into a team capable of winning the Cup. When Bylsma took over as head coach, after starting the season as the head coach of the Penguins' American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, the Penguins were not one of the eight Eastern Conference teams.
The Grand Haven, Mich. native, who played 157 games between 1988-92 at BGSU, turned things around and led Pittsburgh to an 18-3-4 record in its last 25 regular season games to claim the No. 4 playoff seed in the East.
Since taking over, Bylsma's Penguins have carved out a 34-11-4 record on their way to winning the Stanley Cup.
"Life's a bugger," Bylsma said in his postgame press conference Friday night. "I had plans about this and had dreams about it. I hoped this would happen someday, but good coaches have coached a long time and never gotten an opportunity like this. A lot of times, your first opportunity doesn't come with a team that's this talented or this group of players. I'm very fortunate in that regard."
The Penguins lost the first two games of their second round series against Washington and trailed 2-0 in the finals series.
"There were times in the playoffs when we were tested and had our backs against the wall," Bylsma said on Friday. "Our guys were pretty level-headed and focused on playing the way we needed to play regardless of the situation."
The Penguins were the first team since the 1971 Montreal Canadiens to win Game 7 on the road in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Bylsma is the fourth former BGSU player to earn the Stanley Cup joining Rob Blake, Greg De Vries and Ken Morrow. Blake and de Vries won the Cup in 2001 with Colorado while Morrow won four titles (1980-83) with the New York Islanders.
