Dave Burkholder (born 1962) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

college ice hockey College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though leagues exist outside North America. In the United States, competitive "college hockey" refers to ice hockey played between colleges and universities within the g ...

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and former college player. He coached the Niagara University program from 2001 to 2017, taking over from Blaise MacDonald, a former teammate of his with the

RIT Tigers The RIT Tigers are composed of 22 teams representing Rochester Institute of Technology in intercollegiate athletics, including men and women's basketball, crew, cross country, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, and track and ...

. Burkholder also previously served as the assistant general manager and assistant coach of the

Niagara Falls Thunder The Niagara Falls Thunder was a junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League from 1988 to 1996. The team was based in Niagara Falls, Ontario. History Niagara Falls became home to its third OHL franchise in 1988 upon the relocation of the H ...

of the

Ontario Hockey League The Ontario Hockey League (OHL; french: Ligue de hockey de l'Ontario (LHO)) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The league is for players aged 16–19. There are exceptions for overa ...

Career

Burkholder played college ice hockey as a

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

with the

, winning the 1983 Division II National Championship and being selected tournament MVP. He was a three-time ECAC First-Team All-Star and garnered all-American status in 1984. Burkholder entered the coaching ranks in 1994 as an assistant coach and assistant GM for the

. Two years later he accepted an assistant coaching role with the newly created Niagara program. Burkholder remained in that position until he was named as the head coach following Blaise MacDonald leaving to take over at Massachusetts–Lowell. Burkholder built in the success that his former teammate started, winning two conference tournaments, a pair of league title and consistently finishing near the top of the CHA standings over the next nine seasons. Once the CHA folded Niagara joined

Atlantic Hockey The Atlantic Hockey Association (AHA) is an NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey conference which operates primarily in the northeastern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as an ice hockey-only conference. Unlike several other ...

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

. Burkholder's team played well the first several seasons, including a league title in his third year, but afterwards the program fell on hard times. For three straight years the team finished with only single-digit win totals and it was announced in the spring of 2017 that Niagara would not be bringing Burkholder back.

Head coaching record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Burkholder, Dave 1962 births Living people Canadian ice hockey coaches Canadian ice hockey goaltenders Ice hockey people from Ontario Niagara Purple Eagles men's ice hockey coaches RIT Tigers men's ice hockey players Sportspeople from Welland