University of Minnesota Duluth women's associate head coach Laura Bellamy was been selected the 2022 recipient of the Women's Ice Hockey Assistant Coach Award by the American Hockey Coaches Association Wednesday. This national award recognizes the career body of work of a women's assistant hockey coach.
A Duluth, Minn. native, Bellamy is in the midst of her seventh season behind the bench of the Bulldogs and third as an associate head coach after four seasons as an assistant to UMD bench boss Maura Crowell. Previously, Bellamy spent two years as an assistant coach at Harvard, and has a total of nine years of Division I women's hockey coaching experience.
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. UMD finished the COVID-19 challenged season 12-7-0 with a .688 winning percentage, its highest since the 2016-17 NCAA tournament season. It also marks the third highest of the last decade.
In six previous seasons at UMD, Bellamy has help guide UMD to an overall record of 100-79-20, including a WCHA postseason record of 10-8 and two NCAA Tournament berths (2021, 2017). Bellamy has overseen a Patty Kazmaier Top-3 Finalist (Lara Stalder), as well as 58 WCHA Scholar Athletes and a total of 84 WCHA All-Academic Team members, as well as 10 Olympians, and has coached a total of 14 Olympians (four at Harvard). Over that span, Bellamy has had a hand in UMD's five All-Americans, including 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. Bell was named the 2020-21 WCHA Defenseman of the Year, while Soderberg was selected the 2020-21 WCHA Goaltender of the Year. Bellamy's assistance helped land WCHA Student Athlete of the Year for Cather 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 18 players placed on All-WCHA Teams, and tacked on a program-record 15WCHA Scholar Athletes in 2020-21, as well as a program-high 18 WCHA All-Academic Team members in 2019-20.
With Bellamy's assistance, UMD finished second place in the WCHA in 2020-21, just a single point from the top spot. The Bulldogs earned 19 WCHA wins in 2016-17, the program's highest since the 2010-11 season, and finished third in the ultra-competitive WCHA (and just three points out of second place). Bellamy also helped UMD back into the national rankings, and the Bulldogs reached as a high as second in both the USCHO.com and USA TODAY/ USA Hockey Magazine national polls for six weeks before resting in fifth in both final season polls. The Bulldogs were also runners-up in the 2017 WCHA Final Face-Off tournament to the University of Wisconsin, UMD's first trip back to the tournament's final game since the 2012 season.
In addition to her UMD duties, Bellamy was named a coach for the fifth annual U.S. Women's National Team Goaltending Development Camp in May of 2019 at the Schwan Super Rink in Blaine, Minnesota. It is the third consecutive year that Bellamy has served at the camp, which annually brings together the nation's top female goaltenders from the U-18 to professional level, provides athletes with specialized training and mentoring, as well as critical resources to support their long-term development as elite goaltenders. Bellamy has also stepped in and taken the reigns when Crowell has been at the helm of the U.S. U-18 squads during the past three IIHF U-18 World Championships, having posted a 3-3 record in her own right.
