men's hockey Coaches

St. Lawrence University men's hockey coach Joe Marsh was designated the first Charles W. Appleton II Hockey Coach at St. Lawrence in May of 1997, becoming one of few coaches nationally to hold an endowed coaching position in the sport of ice hockey. He completed his 24th season as Saint coach in 2008-09 and is just the third Division I coach to win 400 or more games all at the same institution. He has also taught in the University's First Year Program in each of the last two years.

He was also the runner-up for the Spencer Penrose Award as NCAA Division I Coach of the Year after the 2006-07 and won the Tim Taylor Award as ECAC Hockey Coach of the Year for an unprecidented fourth time.. He coached his 12th 20-or-more win season in 2008-09.

The Appleton coaching position was established by friends of the late Charles W. Appleton II, a member of the class of 1960, who was one of the University's long-time hockey fans and supporters. The Appleton endowment is one of five in the ECAC. Cornell, Colgate, Yale and Harvard also have endowed coaching positions.

Marsh will begin his 25th year as head coach with an eye on adding to an already impressive coaching resume which includes:

Returning to his alma mater after coaching stints at the University of Denver and Princeton, former Saint captain Bob Prier joined the staff in the fall of 2002 as an assistant coach.

The captain of the 1999 ECAC runner-up and NCAA tournament team and a winner of the Jinx Doyle Memorial Award, Bob signed a pro contract with Ottawa after graduation but had his playing career curtailed by an injury. He worked as a player’s agent for a year and coached junior hockey in his hometown of Nepean, ONT., before joining the staff at Denver as an assistant coach in 2000-2001. He came back to the ECAC as assistant at Princeton for the 2001-2002 season.

A second-team All ECAC selection as a senior, Bob was the leading scorer for the Saints as a senior with 20 goals and 26 assists for 46 points and finished his career with 116 points on 60 goals and 56 assists in 133 career games.

Bob and his wife Lorenda, a former goaltending coach for the women's program at Princeton and a former Saint assistant, are the parents of a daughter, Bryn, and a son, Camden.

Mike Hurlbut returned to his alma mater as a volunteer assistant coach to start the 2002-2003 season and was appointed full-time assistant coach, replacing Chris Wells, who became head women's hockey coach in the 2008-09 season.

A first-team All America for the Saints and a member of the two winning-est teams in Saint hockey history in 1988 and 1989, Mike is a 1989 graduate of St. Lawrence and had a long and successful professional hockey career. He spent 14 years in the International and American hockey leagues and played 29 games, scoring one goal and assisting on eight others, in the National Hockey League.

Among the teams he played for were the Houston Aeros, Minnesota Moose, Binghamton Rangers and the Rochester Americans. He played 23 games with the New York Rangers in 1992-93 and also had NHL appearances with the Quebec Nordique and the Buffalo Sabres.

Mike and his wife Julie have a son , Jacob and a daughter, Emily.