Scott Sandelin, head coach of the defending NCAA champion University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs, was named as an assistant coach with the U.S. National Junior Team, which will compete  in the 2019 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship on Dec. 26, 2018-Jan. 5, 2019, in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia.

This marks the third time Sandelin will be part of a U.S. National Junior Team coaching staff.  In 2005, he served as head coach for the U.S. entry that finished fourth at the IIHF World Junior Championship and seven years later took on an assistant coaching role.

Sandelin, who will embark on his program-high 19th season behind the Bulldog bench in 2018-19, has guided UMD to two NCAA titles and one runnerup national finish (all coming in the last eight seasons). Since 2008-09, his Bulldogs have gone 218-140-45 while making seven NCAA Tournament appearances (2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018), advancing to three NCAA Frozen Fours (2011, 2017 and 2018), claiming one playoff crown in both the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (2017) and Western Collegiate Hockey Association (2009), posting eight National Collegiate Hockey Conference/Western Collegiate Hockey Association upper-division finishes and piecing together seven, 22-win campaigns.

Sandelin's winning percentage in NCAA Tournament play -- .739 off a 17-6 record -- is the best of any active bench boss (minimum eight games) and trails only the late Herb Brooks (.889 at the University of Minnesota), Vic Heyliger (.800 at the University of Michigan) and Gino Gasparini (.789 at North Dakota) among all NCAA coaches. Sandelin, the 2003-04 Spencer Penrose Award winner (American Hockey Coaches Association NCAA I Coach of the Year), the runnerup for that honor seven winters ago and a Top 10 finalist the past two years, owns a 340-300-85 overall record and has helped produce two Hobey Baker Memorial Award winners (Jack Connolly in 2011-12 and Junior Lessard in 2003-04), eight NCAA I All-Americans (including three-time pick Jack Connolly), and 23 All-NCHC/WCHA honorees. He's also seen 21 of his UMD pupils go on to do time in the National Hockey League.