Saint Cloud State University

Steve Macdonald begins his third season as the head coach of St. Cloud State University Women’s Hockey in 2021-22.

Guiding the Huskies through the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 campaign, Macdonald led SCSU to a 6-12-1 record, earning four conference wins more than the year prior. St. Cloud State finished sixth in the WCHA standings, just one and a half points behind the fifth-place team. The Huskies' penalty kill was one of the best in the country at 88.5%, placing SCSU tenth in the Nation in success rate and displaying a double-digit improvement from the season prior. Freshman goaltender Sanni Ahola was named to the WCHA All-Rookie Team, while she and first-year forward Emma Gentry each were named WCHA Rookie of the Week multiple times throughout the season. Macdonald is in his eighth season overall with St. Cloud State, spending his first five campaigns as an assistant coach.

Macdonald was named the head coach of the SCSU women’s hockey team in 2019, and he led the Huskies to a 6-24-5 record in his first season as the team’s head coach (2-21-1 in the WCHA) in 2019-20.  Under Macdonald’s leadership, SCSU forward Klára Hymlárová was named to the 2019-20 WCHA All-Rookie Team.

A graduate of the University of Winnipeg, Macdonald was an assistant coach for the women’s hockey program at the University of Minnesota Duluth from 2011 to 2014.  

Prior to his tenure at UMD, Macdonald served as the Director of Hockey and head coach for the Balmoral Hall School for Girls hockey team in Winnipeg, Manitoba from 2010 to 2011.  He also served as an assistant coach at Balmoral Hall from 2007 to 2010.  In 2010, Macdonald was an assistant coach on the Hockey Canada women’s under-18 national team and also served as head coach for the Hockey Manitoba Provincial under-18 team in 2008.  

He was an asssitant with the Pembina Trails Twins AA Female Bantam squad in 2006-07 and was an assistant with the River East Ligthing Female Midget AA team in 2003-04.  In addition, Macdonald worked as an assistant coach with men’s squads at the University of Ottawa in 2005-06 and the Fort Richmond Collegiate team in 2004-05.

Macdonald played junior hockey with the Dauphin Kings (1998-99) and the Fort Garry Twins (1999-01) and played one season of NCAA hockey with Lawrence University in Wisconsin.  He graduated magna cum laude with a degree in psychology/kinesiology and applied health from the University of Winnipeg and later earned his master of science degree from the University of Manitoba.

He is a resident of St. Cloud, Minn.

The Macdonald File: