Bob Gaudet enters his 13th season as head coach of the Big Green. Gaudet is a 1981 graduate of Dartmouth and played four years for the varsity hockey team as a goaltender. He came back to Dartmouth after nine successful seasons behind the Brown University bench.

    At Dartmouth, Gaudet guided the Big Green to seven straight winning seasons from the 2000-01 season to 2006-07 and had 20-win seasons in 2002-03 and 2004-05. The 20-13-2 record in 2004-05 marked the team’s fifth consecutive campaign above .500, the first time that had happened in school history. Gaudet has also led the Big Green to seven straight home playoff series and in 2001, the program made its first trip to the ECAC semifinals in 20 years. He earned his 200th career win against St. Lawrence on Feb. 11, 2005 and has a Dartmouth record of 163-151-41.

    The Big Green has won two titles under Gaudet. In 2007 Dartmouth captured a share of its first Ivy title since Gaudet was in net in 1980. The 2005-06 season gave Dartmouth its first-ever ECACHL title. Gaudet was also named ECAC Hockey’s Coach of the Year, making him the second coach to earn the award with two separate teams. He was also a finalist for the Division I Coach of the Year award. Gaudet has now had two Ivy League players of the year – Mike Ouellette earned the honor in 2005-06 while David Jones was given the title in 2006-07. Jones was also an All-America, giving Gaudet four back-to-back players to earn that distinction.       

    Gaudet took over Brown’s coaching reins in 1988 and immediately went about transforming the Bears from a perennial cellar-dweller into one of the ECAC’s top programs. During his tenure, Brown steadily climbed in the league standings, from 12th in ’89 to eighth in ’90 and ’91, fifth in ’92, third in ’93, fourth in ’94 and all the way to second in ’95. Gaudet has begun the same process at Dartmouth. The Big Green finished 11th his first two years, eighth in 2000, fifth in ’01, third in ’05 and was tied for first in 2006-07.

    During Gaudet’s time at Brown, the Bears were crowned Ivy League champions twice (1991 and 1995) and, in 1993, made the school’s first NCAA appearance since 1976. In both 1993 and 1995, he was a finalist for Division I Coach of the Year honors. He was named ECAC Coach of the Year in 1995 after leading Brown to a second-place finish in the league, just one-and-a-half games behind first-place Clarkson. The Bears also spent much of the year in and out of the top 10 in the national polls. Gaudet’s career coaching record stands at a respectable 270-307-75.

    Gaudet became head coach of the Bears in 1988 following a five-year tenure as an assistant coach with the Big Green. He assisted in all aspects at Dartmouth under head coaches George Crowe and Brian Mason while coordinating recruiting efforts and serving as varsity goaltender coach. In addition, he directed the junior varsity program his first season in Hanover.

    Gaudet graduated in 1981 with a degree in visual arts after four productive seasons for the Big Green hockey team. In 1979 and 1980, Gaudet led the Big Green to Ivy League titles and appearances in the NCAA Frozen Four. As a senior, he served as co-captain and was a recipient of the Philip D. McInnis Award for spirit, loyalty and dedication to Dartmouth ice hockey. In 76 career games, he made a school-record 2,129 saves while allowing only 299 goals for a 4.00 career goals against average and an .877 save percentage. He had his most successful campaign as a sophomore when he recorded two of his four career shutouts to go along with a 3.03 goals against average. He was first team All-Ivy in 1978-79 and 1979-80, and was a two-time recipient of the Canterbury Society Award for the best Ivy League goalie.

    Following graduation, Gaudet signed a free-agent contract with the Winnipeg Jets of the National Hockey League. He played for minor league affiliates of Winnipeg in the CHL and IHL for one year before a knee injury cut short his promising career.

    In the summer of 1990, Gaudet served as the assistant coach of the East team in the Olympic Sports Festival, held in Minneapolis. In 1994, he served again as head coach of the East team, and also coached the East All-Star Team in the East-West Shrine College Hockey Classic. Gaudet spent the summer of 1998 behind the bench of the New England Select 16-Team at USA Hockey’s Summer Festival in Ann Arbor, Mich.

    Gaudet and his wife Lynne – also a 1981 Dartmouth graduate – reside in Etna, N.H., and have three children: sons Joe and Jim plus daughter Kelly. Both sons are current members of the Dartmouth men’s hockey team.