Moon Township, Pa. - Robert Morris University women's hockey head coach Paul Colontino has announced the hiring of former Colonial goaltender and United States National Team member Brianne McLaughlin as a volunteer assistant coach.
McLaughlin had a storied collegiate career for Robert Morris before competing for her country in both Olympic and World Championship events.
"We are very excited to have Brianne join the Robert Morris coaching staff," Colontino said. "Bri had an excellent collegiate playing career and continues to compete at the national level with Team USA. Her experiences at both levels will prove valuable in the development of our program as a whole and with the individual needs of our student athletes."
McLaughlin, who recently graduated from Robert Morris with a degree in nursing, will assist with numerous aspects of the RMU program including day-to-day operations, individual player development, video analysis and practice planning.
In 120 career games for Robert Morris, McLaughlin stopped a NCAA-record 3,809 shots, a figure that is more than 200 clear of the closest netminder. McLaughlin was a four-time All-College Hockey America award winner and also earned national defensive player of the week honors on three occasions in her career. She led RMU to one of the biggest wins in school history Oct. 3, 2008 when she made a single-game school record 63 saves to lead the Colonials to a stunning road upset of No. 3 Minnesota. McLaughlin recorded at least 40 saves in 27 contests in her RMU career and stopped at least 50 shots on eight occasions.
Less than one year after she completed her collegiate career, McLaughlin traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia for the 2010 Olympic Games as a member of the U.S. National Team. She appeared in the team's first game of the tournament, becoming the first Colonial student-athlete to compete in the Olympics, and went on to help the U.S. earn a silver medal.
McLaughlin recently added another item to her award collection as she won a gold medal in April with the Red, White & Blue at the 2011 International Ice Hockey Federation World Women's Championship in Switzerland. McLaughlin got the start between the pipes in the opening tournament game for the U.S. against Slovakia and certainly rose to the occasion in her first-career world championship appearance. She stopped every shot she faced to record her first-career shutout in a U.S. uniform despite having to face the Slovakian power-play unit on five occasions. McLaughlin's effort would prove to be America's only shutout of the tournament as the U.S. squad would go on to win its third-consecutive world championship with a thrilling, 3-2, overtime victory over Canada.
