Oliver Named USHL Coach of the Year
The United States Hockey League (USHL) and Fargo Force announced that
Nick Oliver has been named Coach of the Year for the 2022-23 season.
The USHL Coach of the Year Award is voted on by each member club’s General Manager.
In his first season as head coach of the Force, Oliver led his club to a 40-14-4-4 record in capturing the Anderson Cup as USHL regular-season champions for the first time in team history. In doing so, Fargo established a record for most wins and points in team history.
Under his guidance, the Force allowed a league-low 159 goals and 2.56 goals against average and had the league’s best road record (20-7-3-1). Fargo, which owned a 33-1-2-3 record when leading after two periods of play on the season, put together an 8-0-1-0 mark in the month of February en route to capturing the Western Conference title.
Oliver, who was selected to coach at this year’s Biosteel All-American Game, had a pair of players named All-USHL First Team in forward
Cole Knuble and defenseman
Joe Palodichuk, while goaltender
Matej Marinov was named All-USHL Second Team. Forward
Mac Swanson was named USHL All-Rookie First Team.
Oliver, a former Fargo forward (2009-11) who was an assistant coach at St. Cloud State for four years prior to becoming the Force head coach last summer, joins
Dean Blais (2009) as Fargo Force coaches to be named the recipient of the USHL Coach of the Year award.
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