Yale tabs Kirtland as assistant
Served in same role at Sacred Heart
Paul Kirtland, who spent the past two seasons working as an assistant coach with the Sacred Heart men’s hockey team, was hired to the same position at Yale, the school announced on Thursday.
Kirtland, 32, replaces Ryan Donald on Keith Allain’s staff. Donald, a former captain of the Bulldogs, left at season’s end to take over as head coach of Cranbrook, an expansion franchise in the British Columbia Junior Hockey League.
At Sacred Heart, Kirtland helped the Pioneers to two of the best seasons in program history. They were one of the nation’s topscoring teams last winter, notching numerous milestones including wins at Boston University, claiming the first Connecticut Ice Festival championship with wins over Quinnipiac and Yale and tying the program record for single-season wins before the season ended abruptly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An Ohio State alum who played professionally in the ECHL, he’d been an assistant coach for several highly successful teams the past few seasons. At Fairbanks (Alaska) he won a North American Hockey League and Tier II USA Hockey national championship in 2014. He joined the staff at Trinity, winning consecutive NESCAC titles and helping the Bantams reach the 2017 NCAA Division III championship game.
He spent a season with
Dubuque of the USHL before joining C.J. Marottolo’s staff at Sacred Heart in the fall of 2018.
“We are excited to add Paul to our coaching staff; he has been extremely successful wherever he has coached and is one of the brightest young minds in college hockey,” said Allain. “Paul will spend lots of time developing our defensemen and working on the penalty kill, but his contributions won’t stop there. He is an excellent skills coach and has experience working in all facets of the game. Each one of our players will benefit from his presence on our staff. His hiring represents our deep commitment to the development of our people as we relentlessly pursue championships.”
cmalafronte@nhregister.com