Mike Sertich, who coached Minnesota Duluth’s men’s hockey program from 1982 to 2000, died Thursday at age 77 after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. He was in hospice care in Duluth.
A native of Virginia, Minn., Sertich was a defenseman for the Bulldogs in the late 1960s before becoming a teacher and coach in Grand Rapids. He was an assistant to Gus Hendrickson when Rapids won the Minnesota state high school hockey title in 1975; Hendrickson took the UMD coach job that fall, bringing Sertich along as an assistant.
Sertich took over as head coach in 1982-83 and the Bulldogs reached unprecedented heights, making three consecutive eight-team NCAA tournaments. In 1984, UMD lost to Bowling Green in four overtimes in Lake Placid, N.Y., in the national title game, a loss that stuck with Sertich for a long time. The Bulldogs would not win their first national title until 2011
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