MILWAUKEE – Shawn Walsh, who coached the University of Maine hockey team to 42 wins and the school’s first-ever Division I national title this season, is expected to return as the head coach at Maine next year.

That was the word from University of Maine Athletic Director Mike Ploszek, who met with Walsh prior to Saturday night’s 5-4 NCAA championship game victory over Lake Superior State at the Bradley Center here.

“Shawn had two years left on his contract and we have extended it two more years,” said Ploszek, who reached a verbal agreement with Walsh.

The announcement quelled rumors that Walsh was seriously considering taking the head coaching position of the fledgling program at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

“Shawn will be getting in excess of a 10 percent pay increase and it is all from institutional sources,” added Ploszek.

Walsh, in his ninth year at UMaine, is the highest-paid head coach at the University, but like other non-union university employees making in excess of $55,000, he had to absorb a 5 percent pay cut last year. Walsh’s current salary is approximately $63,000 per year.

“Shawn has done a heck of a job. He has built this program and I hope he is getting great joy from being a national champion,” Ploszek said.

When asked about his future at a press conference following the national title game, Walsh was somewhat non-committal. When asked if he was going elsewhere, he said he hadn’t talked to “elsewhere” yet, but he expected to be back coaching at the University of Maine next year.

Ploszek said that under the arrangement he has with Walsh, the two will sit down after each season and discuss the terms of the following year’s contract.

Walsh’s victory in the NCAA championship game was the 250th of his career. He is now 250-120-14 and owns a 205-47-10 overall mark since 1987.

Walsh’s teams have put together six consecutive seasons with 30 or more wins. Over the past two seasons, Walsh’s Maine teams are 73-5-4.

Former UMaine assistant coach Jay Leach, the head coach of the AHL’s Springfield (Mass.) Indians, is still considered a top candidate for the UMass post. UMass will play a largely Division II and III schedule next year, then would join Hockey East the following season.