Minnesota Duluth assistant coach Laura Schuler is one of three finalists - along with Mercyhurst head coach Mike Sisti and Harvard associate head coach Maura Crowell - to become the next head coach of the Bulldogs women’s hockey program when the contract of current head coach Shannon Miller expires at the end of June.
All three candidates will be interviewing on campus today and Wednesday with a hire expected to be made “in the next week or so,” according to a release issued by UMD on Tuesday.
Schuler made her candidacy known shortly after it was announced on Dec. 15 that Miller would not have her contract renewed after 16 seasons and five national titles. Schuler has been an assistant under Miller for the past seven seasons and before that was the head coach at Northeastern University. She coached Canada to a gold medal in the IIHF Under-18 World Championships in 2013-14.
Sisti is the only women’s hockey coach Mercyhurst has known in its 16 years of women’s hockey. In those 16 seasons, the Lakers are 410-108-34 after going 23-9-3 in 2014-15 in College Hockey America. Sisti’s teams have reached 10 NCAA tournaments, won 10 consecutive conference titles and put together 14 straight 20-win seasons. He’s a two-time USCHO Women’s Coach of the Year (2005, 2007).
Crowell has coached at Harvard for the past five years, serving as an associate head coach this season, the interim head coach in 2013-14, and before that as an assistant. Prior to coaching at Harvard, she was the head coach at NCAA Division III UMass-Boston for five seasons, going 73-53-4.
Crowell and the Crimson fell Sunday to Minnesota in the NCAA championship game in Minneapolis to wrap up a 27-6-3 season. Harvard tied Clarkson for the ECAC regular season title and beat Cornell for the ECAC tournament title.
