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KJ Saunders bolted through the Iowa Woo defense on Harbor Monsters kickoff return. Photos by John Gilbert.

It’s understandable why a major college would prefer to hire a big-name alumnus as a new head coach if possible, just to get the built-in loyalty, dedication, historical perspective and fans’ familiarity as a backdrop. However, in the case of the UMD women’s hockey team, it is hard to imagine anyone with those qualities in greater quantities than Laura Schuler, who was presented with the challenge by athletic director Forrest Karr.

Schuler spent several years assisting Shannon Miller, the program’s first coach and organizer of the teams through the first nine years, and, after going off to do some head coaching of the Canadian National and Olympic women’s teams and 4-year terms as head coach at both Northeastern and Dartmouth, she returned to UMD to assist Maura Crowell for the last three seasons.

Now, with Crowell leaving the position to become head coach at Dartmouth, Schuler steps in as only the third coach in UMDs 25-year history of women’s hockey. And she has worked for both of the other two.

“I’m so pumped, because I love this program,” said Schuler, 53, “I love this community, and I want to thank all the past coaches I’ve had, especially Shannon Miller and Maura Crowell at UMD. I’ve learned so much from them.

“Shannon was so innovative, and her creativity showed every game. Maura is a great leader who treats all her players and staff with great respect. Working with Maura has convinced me how important it is to spend time talking to players and listening to them, as well as the staff members.”

There are major differences between the two, particularly in their ultimate success. 

Laura Schuler was promoted to replace Maura Crowell as UMD's head women's hockey coach by athletic director Forrest Carr. 

Miller, always forceful and confident, coached the Canadian Olympic team in 1998 in Nagano, Japan, when Schuler was a player on that team, which won the silver medal, after being upset by the U.S. in the gold medal final. 

In the fall of 1968, Miller was hired to create the new program at UMD, and the Bulldogs pulled off some incredible accomplishments — winning the first season of WCHA women’s hockey, and, a year later when the NCAA decided to add a national women’s tournament, UMD won the first three NCAA championships.

UMD won five NCAA titles under Miller, the last in 2010, before she was informed in midseason that her contract would not be renewed by athletic director Josh Berlo, who hired Crowell to replace Miller.

The landscape had changed after the first decade of women’s Division One hockey, and Minnesota, Wisconsin and more recently Ohio State have risen to greater prominence, and Crowell’s UMD teams have yet to win an NCAA title. Her recruiting has led UMD back up to compete for berths in the NCAA tournament, and Crowell surprised everyone by deciding to leave UMD for the Dartmouth job. Her father died two years ago, and she and her partner now have a young child, and Crowell said after spending her adult life choosing her career over her personal life, now she has decided to choose family over her career by returning to live closer to her family.

“I cannot say enough wonderful things about Maura,” said Schuler. “She and I discussed everything we did as a team, and I have to say Maura and I see the game the same way. There may not be any major changes in how we play, but we are knocking on the door so hard.”

All-Star week in the major leagues has always been a major attraction in baseball, although so many teams nowadays mean players don’t get to play very long in the actual game.  

Huskies Josh Butler threw a 7-inning 1-hitter but a 9-1 lead wasn't enough when the Eau Claire Express rallied to win 9-8.

The Twins have seemingly entered competition with the Huskies to invent bizarre ways to lose games, and, entertaining or not, some are excruciatingly painful.

Finishing their final pre-break road trip in San Francisco, the Twins were snuffed for seven innings by Blake Snell, who had a perfect game through six, and gave up one hit while striking out 8 and walking none through seven complete innings. 

Manuel Margot, the eager fill-in for Byron Buxton in center field, came up with the hit that broke up the perfect game in the seventh, and he came up again in the ninth, with the Twins trailing 2-0 and runners on second and third, and hit a double to center, driving in both runs for a 2-2 tie.

Jhoan Duran came in to pitch the last of the ninth, and Mike Yastrzemski socked one deep to center, flying around first and second and stretching for a triple. The throw came in hot, to rookie second baseman Brooks Lee, who whirled and fired his throw over third base and over the dugout. Yastrzemski, after sliding into third, got up and jogged home for a walk-off 3-2 victory.

At Wade Stadium, the Huskies were doing a number on the Eau Claire Express, as Josh Butler fired a 1-hitter through 7 innings as the Huskies stormed to a 9-2 lead. The Express score two in the top of the eighth, and the 9-2 lead still looked solid.

But the bullpen couldn’t hold it, and DH Brigs Richertz hammered a bases-loaded double in the top of the ninth that closed the gap to 9-8, with nobody out. After getting two outs, Brady Reynolds tripled to right-center, and, improbable or not, it was 9-9. 

Ethan Farris came up next and hit a sacrificed fly to right, which allowed Reynolds to jog home with a 10-9 lead. The Huskies went down in the last of the ninth, and their 9-2 lead had become a 10-9 nightmare loss.

Brady Reynolds, who hit a base-clearing triple in the top of the ninth, finished a 6-run inning by scoring on an Ethan Farris sacrifice fly as Eau Claire stunned the Huskies 10-9.

It was a wilder, but also entertaining, afternoon Saturday at the DECC, where our newest sports entity — the Duluth Harbor Monsters arena football team — was facing the Iowa Woo. It was crazy and unpredictable, with a 6-on-6 format on a 50-yard field set up inside the old hockey arena, but a couple thousand fans were definitely entertained. 

The Harbor Monsters had a fight on their hands from the outset, trailing in a back-and-forth battle until taking a 28-27 lead 11 seconds before the half. 

The teams kept changing the lead through the second half, when the Harbor Monsters overcame a 33-28 deficit by scoring three straight touchdowns and holding on for a 51-28 victory.

Crazy as the scoring was, some critical defensive plays, like diving interceptions, and some timely scoring made the difference.

Harbor Monsters gained a 34-33 lead when Travis Whitlock fought his way into end zone.