Jake Guentzel was not contemplating any sort of homecoming when he committed to playing hockey at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Guentzel was born in Omaha while his father, Mike, was head coach of the Omaha Lancers of the United States Hockey League but was just a few months old when his family moved to Minnesota. But after returning to the state amid its first modest hockey boom, the Pittsburgh Penguins rookie is inadvertently becoming hockey's face in the Cornhusker State.
Mike Guentzel uprooted his family to take a job coaching at his alma mater, the University of Minnesota.