UMD head coach Maura Crowell will embark on her eighth season behind the Bulldog bench for the 2022-23 season after leading UMD back into the NCAA Frozen Four Championship game in 2021-22.
Crowell and the Bulldogs made their first back-to-back NCAA Frozen Four appearance in over a decade in March and returned UMD to the title game for the first time in 12 years last season after posting a 27-12-1 record, including a 3-1 record through the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
In seven seasons at UMD, Crowell has an overall record of 127-91-21, including an overall NCAA Tournament record of 4-3 and three NCAA Tournament berths (2022,2021, 2017) to go with two NCAA Frozen Four Appearances (2022, 2021). Crowell has overseen two Patty Kazmaier Top-3 Finalists (Gabbie Hughes and Lara Stalder), as well as a Patty Kazmaier Top-10 Finalist (Élizabeth Giguère). Under Crowell's guidance, UMD has had 72 WCHA Scholar Athletes and a total of 101 WCHA All-Academic Team members. For her efforts during the 2016-17 season, Crowell was named the USCHO Division I Women's Coach of the Year, as well as the the CCM/AHCA Division I Women's Ice Hockey Coach of the Year Award for 2017, and was named a CCM/AHCA Division I Women's Ice Hockey Coach of the Year Finalist in both 2022 and 2021. Crowell was also crowned the 2016-17 WCHA Coach of the Year after she guided UMD to its biggest turnaround in program history with 25-7-5 overall record and the Bulldogs first NCAA Quarterfinal game at home since 2010.
Native Duluthian Laura Bellamy will enter her eighth season at UMD in 2022-23, and fourth as an associate head coach after four seasons as an assistant to UMD bench boss Maura Crowell.
Bellamy was selected the 2022 recipient of the Women's Ice Hockey Assistant Coach Award by the American Hockey Coaches Association, a national award that recognizes the career body of work of a women's assistant hockey coach. Bellamy and the Bulldogs made their first trip back to an NCAA Frozen Four title game in March of 2022, and locked in their second-consecutive NCAA Frozen Four appearance for the first time in over a decade. UMD went 3-1 in the 2022 NCAA Tournament, tying the most wins in an NCAA Tournament for the Bulldog program.
Prior to helping guide the Bulldogs to a 27-12-1 record and final national ranking of second in 2021-22, Bellamy helped the Bulldogs make their first NCAA Frozen Four appearance since the 2010 season after defeating Colgate 1-0 in overtime on March 15, 2021, in Erie, Penn., UMD's first NCAA Quarterfinal victory in a decade.
In seven seasons at UMD, Bellmay has assisted the program to an overall record of 127-91-21, including an overall NCAA Tournament record of 4-3 and three NCAA Tournament berths (2022,2021, 2017) to go with two NCAA Frozen Four Appearances (2022, 2021). Bellamy has helped overseen two Patty Kazmaier Top-3 Finalists (Gabbie Hughes and Lara Stalder), as well as a Patty Kazmaier Top-10 Finalist (Élizabeth Giguère). Under Bellamy's guidance, UMD has had 72 WCHA Scholar Athletes and a total of 101 WCHA All-Academic Team members.
UMD has had seven All-Americans, including Gabbie Hughes Élizabeth Giguère in 2021-22, Ashton Bell, Anna Klein and Emma Soderberg in 2020-21 and two All-Americans in the 2016-17 season (Stalder and Sidney Morin), as well as run on league awards over Bellamy's tenure. Bell was named the 2020-21 WCHA Defenseman of the Year, while Soderberg was selected the 2020-21 WCHA Goaltender of the Year. With Bellamy's help, the program also landed WCHA Student Athlete of the Year for Catherine Daoust in 2017-18, and 2016-17 WCHA Player of the Year for Stalder, Defensive Player of the Year for Morin, as well as WCHA Student Athlete of the Year. UMD has also had 21 players placed on All-WCHA Teams, and tacked on a program-record 15 WCHA Scholar Athletes in 2020-21, as well as a program-high 18 WCHA All-Academic Team members in 2019-20.
Assistant coach Laura Schuler will begin her second consecutive season with the Bulldogs in 2022-23 after her triumphant return to UMD resulted in an NCAA championship title game appearance in 2021-22. Schuler, who has now been a part of four NCAA Tournament teams with the Bulldogs, including three NCAA Frozen Fours and an NCAA championship in 2010, joined UMD after she was an advisor to the Quinnipiac University women's hockey coaching staff during the 2020-21 season. Schuler brought with with her an extensive resume of coaching and playing experience with Hockey Canada, as well as a college coaching career that had spanned over two decades.
As a player, Schuler competed for Hockey Canada after her collegiate career at Northeastern. She won three gold medals at the World Championships in 1990, 1992 and 1997, two gold medals at the Pacific Rim Championships in 1995 and 1996 and two gold and a silver at the Three Nations Cup in 1996, 1997 and 1999. She was also a member of the 1998 Canadian Olympic team and won a silver medal at the Winter Games.
She began her coaching career in 2001 as the head coach of UMass Boston and later at her alma mater of Northeastern from 2004-2008. Schuler became an assistant coach for the Bulldogs in 2008 and, over seven seasons, helped lead UMD to three NCAA Tournament berths, as well as an NCAA title in 2010. She then spent three seasons at the helm of Dartmouth College (2016-2020), with a one-year sabbatical during her tenure to guide the Canadian national team in the 2018 Olympics.