Tara Connolly - Women's Ice Hockey Coach - Dartmouth College Athletics

Tara Connolly

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
Tara.E.Connolly@dartmouth.edu

Head Coach of Dartmouth Women's Hockey Maura Crowell hired Tara Connolly as an assistant coach in July of 2024.

In her first season with the Big Green, Connolly worked primarily with the goaltenders, defense, penalty kill and oversaw the program's recruiting efforts. First-year Michaela Hesová was dominant all season, making 30 or more saves in nearly half of the games she played in. Hesová broke the program saves record by 30, stopping 848 shots in her first 28 games with the Big Green. Her .922 save percentage ranks her eighth all time in highest save percentage in a single season. Following her season with the Big Green, Hesová made her senior national team debut with Czechia, making 44 saves with a .917 save percentage against the United States, earning player of the game honors.

Grace Zhan, the Big Green's other first year goaltender was nearly perfect in her one game played, allowing only one goal.

Additionally, Dartmouth's penalty kill improved from 66.99% in 2023-24 to 74.4% in 2024-25. The team's goals against average dropped by nearly two, from 4.60 in 2023-4 to 2.69 in 2024-25.

Connolly spent seven years behind the bench at RPI, serving as an assistant coach for the Engineers, focusing on defense, goaltenders, and the penalty kill. She also led the program's recruiting efforts.

While at RPI, Connolly elevated the play of two goaltenders, Amanda Rampado and Lovisa Selander. Rampado was a Top-11 Semifinalist for National Goaltender of the Year while Selander became RPI's first Patty Kazmaier Award Top-10 finalist, finishing her collegiate career with the NCAA career saves record. Selander also played internationally with the Swedish National Team, was a first-round draft pick to the Boston Pride in 2019 and collected goaltender of the year honors during her rookie season.

In addition to impacting the netminders, Connolly helped return the Engineers to conference and national prominence. During her second season, RPI won 14 games, their most victories in almost a decade, securing the No. 8 seed in the ECAC Hockey playoffs. They went on to beat No. 1 Cornell to be the first No. 8 seed to win a playoff game.

After the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020-21 season, the Engineers returned with wins over two ranked opponents and earned voted in national polls.

Her recruiting abilities also shined with the Engineers as Connolly recruited Czech defender Andrea Trnkova to RPI, and coached her to All-ECAC Hockey Rookie Team honors in 2023-24.

Since 2015, Connolly has also been involved with USA Hockey, nationally and regionally.

Prior to her time in New York, Connolly was an assistant coach at Wesleyan University, mainly working with defenseman, goaltenders, and focusing on recruiting. She also coached the women's lacrosse team, sticking with goaltenders and defense.

Connolly, a 2013 Bowdoin College graduate, played 38 games in goal for the Polar Bears, posting a 21-11-3 record, a .914 save percentage and led them to the NESCAC Championship her senior year. She was also a four-year starter in goal for their lacrosse team, setting the program record with 49 career wins. In her final season of collegiate lacrosse, Connolly was named an All-American. Connolly earned a bachelor's degree in history and teaching before earning a master's in liberal studies from Wesleyan in 2016.