Brian Durocher, who spent a combined 36 years as a coach and student-athlete at Boston University, now serves as a special assistant to the director of athletics.
Durocher won 338 games in 18 seasons as the first-ever head coach of the Terriers' women's ice hockey program before retiring from coaching in 2023. The winner of the 2020 Ace Bailey Foundation Good Guy Award, Durocher ranks 10th all-time in Division I women's hockey wins. He guided BU to six NCAA tournament appearances – all in succession – from 2010 to 2015.
A 45-year coaching veteran, Durocher was named the head women's coach in 2004 as the program was elevated to varsity status beginning with the 2005-06 season. He led the Terriers to five Hockey East women's tournament titles, including four straight from 2012-15, and the first two Hockey East teams to reach the NCAA women's championship game were Durocher's 2010-11 and 2012-13 squads.
While building BU into one of the nation's top programs, Durocher developed five Terriers into All-Americans and six have competed in the Olympics, highlighted by three-time gold-medalist Marie-Philip Poulin. BU players accumulated 40 Hockey East All-Star awards under Durocher including 19 first-team accolades. His players also combined for 21 Hockey East All-Rookie Team nods. Forty-two of his former players have gone on to play professionally and on four occasions an assistant on his staff was hired as a head coach, including three in Division I.
As well-liked and admired as anyone in the sport, Durocher received the Ace Bailey Foundation Good Guy Award in 2020. Over decades he also built fantastic relationships with people throughout the BU community. He received an Honorary Scarlet Key Award from the university in 2018 and was the recipient of the Bruce Lehane Coaching Award in 2019.
Named the program's first head coach on June 3, 2004, Durocher wasted little time in guiding the Terriers to success. After an inaugural campaign in 2005-06 that set the foundation, year two produced an appearance in the Beanpot final and set a high watermark for wins with 19. In 2007-08, BU returned to the Beanpot championship game and made its postseason debut in the Hockey East semifinals en route to Durocher being named the league's Coach of the Year.
In just the program's fifth season (2009-10), the Terriers hoisted their first Hockey East trophy as they posted an overtime win over UConn to become the first Massachusetts school to win the league crown. The following year, BU claimed its first Hockey East regular-season title and added another two seasons later. BU has finished in the top 10 of the USCHO.com national rankings nine times, including seven consecutive years from 2009-15.
While a student at BU, Durocher was a four-year letterman as a goalie and co-captain of the Terriers' 1978 NCAA Division I national championship team. Durocher first served as a full-time assistant on Jack Parker's staff from 1980-85. He began his coaching career immediately after graduation when he was named an assistant at AIC and returned to BU two years later.
In 1985, he left the Terriers to join the staff of the late Terry Slater at Colgate. He was responsible for attracting the players who backboned the 1990 team that won the Eastern College Athletic Conference title and advanced to the NCAA title game.
In December 1991, after the untimely death of Slater, Durocher was named Colgate's interim head coach, a position he retained through the conclusion of the 1992 season. Later that fall, he was named assistant coach at Brown University, a position he held until he returned to BU in 1996.
A native of Longmeadow, Mass., Durocher won the Eberly Trophy his freshman year at BU as the most outstanding goalie in the Beanpot and was an All-East selection. His senior year, as the Terriers finished with a 30-2 record and won the NCAA title, he posted a 14-2-0 record in goal.
Durocher and his wife, Laura, live in Brookline and have three daughters, Kirsten, Kara and Kelsey.
