NEWS RELEASE WOMEN’S HOCKEY GREATS TRICIA (DUNN) LUOMA AND WINNY (BRODT) BROWN NAMED COACHES FOR NWHL ALL-STAR WEEKEND IN MINNESOTA January 18, 2018, Brooklyn, NY – The National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) is pleased to announce the head coaches for All-Star Weekend on Feb. 10-11 in Minnesota: three-time Olympian Tricia (Dunn) Luoma, who won gold with Team USA in Nagano in 1998; and Winny (Brodt) Brown, the first-ever winner of the Ms. Hockey Award for high school hockey in Minnesota and a member of the U.S. National Team program for a decade. “We are honored to have a pair of women’s hockey greats with deep connections to Minnesota join us for our All-Star Weekend in Saint Paul,” said NWHL Deputy Commissioner Hayley Moore. “We felt strongly about having a Minnesota presence with our teams for these events, and we couldn’t be more pleased that Tricia and Winny will serve as coaches.” In partnership with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild, 2018 NWHL All-Star Weekend will take place Feb. 10- 11 at TRIA Rink, the Wild’s state-of-the-art Practice Facility in downtown Saint Paul. The NWHL Skills Challenge will take place on Saturday, Feb. 10 at 6:45 p.m. CT. The 2018 NWHL All-Star Game is on Sunday, Feb. 11 at 11:30 a.m. CT. Tickets are available now at NWHL.zone/tickets. Skills Challenge tickets are $15, All-Star Game seats are $25 and an All-Star Weekend Package with both events is available for $35. There will be an autograph session with the players after both events for all ticketholders. “It has been awesome to be a part of and to witness the growth of women’s hockey, and I am very excited for the opportunity to be a coach in the NWHL All-Star Game,” said Luoma. Luoma was a forward on the 1998 U.S. Women’s Olympic Team that won a gold medal in Nagano, Japan. She was part of the national team from 1997-2006, playing in six World Championships and three Olympic Winter Games. Luoma is a 1996 graduate of the University of New Hampshire, where she scored 60 goals and added 57 assists for 117 points in 108 career games. In her senior year, she was named to the All-Tournament Team in the ECAC Championship Tournament after UNH won the title in a five-overtime game against Providence. She was inducted into the UNH Hall of Fame in 2003. Now a Minnesota resident, she played for the Whitecaps from 2005-2007. A defender from Roseville, Minn., Brown is an original member of the Whitecaps, who began play in 2004. Brown is currently the Director of Os Hockey Training, overseeing several programs for female hockey players. She also coaches in the Elite League girls program and with several other local hockey associations. Brown started her college career at the University of New Hampshire, where she won the inaugural 1998 AWCHA national championship and was named the MVP of the tournament. She then transferred to the University of Minnesota, leading the Gophers to the 2000 AWCHA championship. She spent the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons with the U.S. Women’s National Team, and she was part of the national team program for 10 years from 1996-2006. She finished her college career in 2003 with 134 points (41G, 93A). In high school, Brown was the first winner of the Ms. Hockey Award in Minnesota and her Roseville High School team went undefeated her senior year, winning the state championship in 1995-96. The All-Star Game format will consist of two 25-minute halves. Each team will have 12 skaters and two goaltenders. The captains of the teams will be Buffalo Beauts goaltender Amanda Leveille, an Isobel Cup champion in 2017 who played at the University of Minnesota from 2012-2016, and Boston Pride goaltender Brittany Ott, an Isobel Cup champion in 2016 who was raised in Michigan. About the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) Established in 2015, the NWHL became the first professional women’s hockey league in North America to pay its players and share in revenue from select apparel sales. The mission of the league is to promote and develop women’s hockey, increase participation and interest in the sport at all levels, and shine a light on the role models that fill the rosters of all of its clubs. The league is made up of the Founding Four: Boston Pride (2016 Isobel Cup champions), Buffalo Beauts (2017 champions), Connecticut Whale and Metropolitan Riveters, and will add more teams in the coming years. Prior to its third season in 2017-18, the NWHL signed a landmark contract with the New Jersey Devils, who became the first NHL team to form a long-term partnership with one of its clubs (Riveters). The league also has a global broadcast agreement with Twitter. For more information, please visit NWHL.zone and follow the league on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @NWHL Contacts: Chris Botta, NWHL – [email protected] .