The awards just keep piling up for the University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team, and they keeping getting bigger and better.  

Bulldog second-year head coach Maura Crowell was named the CCM/AHCA Division I Women's Ice Hockey Coach of the Year Award Thursday night, while senior forward Lara Stalder has been named a CCM Hockey All-American, as chosen by the members of the American Hockey Coaches Association.

Crowell helped the Bulldogs engineer the biggest overall record turnaround in UMD program history with a final record of 25-7-5.  With a third place finish in the ultra-competitive Western Collegiate Hockey Association (and just three points out of second place), Crowell also led the Bulldogs back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2011 and the program's first NCAA quarterfinal hosting charge since 2010.  The Bulldogs were also runner-ups in the 2017 WCHA Final Face-Off tournament.
 
Already named the WCHA's Coach of the Year for the 2016-17 season, Crowell picks up the award for just the second time in program history.  Former coach Shannon Miller earned the award last in the 2002-03 season. 

The native of Luzern, Switzerland and a Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award top-three finalist, Stalder led the Bulldogs in scoring this season, averaging an NCAA second-best 1.60 points per game on 23 goals and 33 assists for 56 points in 35 games.  Stalder -- already named the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's Player of the Year, as well as the WCHA's Student Athlete of the Year -- also ranks fifth in assists per game (0.94) and eighth in goals per game (0.66) in the NCAA.  She had 17 multiple point games for the Bulldogs, including seven outings with three or more points, and in 15 games against top-10 opponents, Stalder had eight goals and 12 assists for 19 points.

Stalder earned the first-ever Women's Hockey Association Player of the Month for January 2017, and was named the WCHA's Offensive Player of the Month for January 2017.  Five times the WCHA Offensive Player of the Week this season, Stalder won the weekly award on Jan. 31, Jan. 24, Jan. 17, Nov. 15 and Oct. 11.  Stalder was named a 2016-17 WCHA Scholar Athlete, and carries a 3.719 Cumulative GPA as a Retail Marketing Analytics major.

As a program, Stalder becomes the eighth different Bulldog All-American player to earn the honor, and gives UMD its 13th overall First Team All-American.  Stalder is the first First Team All-American since defenseman Jocelyne Larocque landed the honor in 2010-11.