Brian McColgan

Brian McColgan is an American retired ice hockey defenseman who was an All-American for St. Lawrence. He returned home and was discovered by St. Lawrence assistant Joe Marsh in a rec league. McColgan was brought to Canton part way through the 1985 season and finished out the final 19 games of the Saints' campaign.

When Marsh took over as head coach the following year, McColgan saw his production jump significantly and led the defense with 10 goals. The team's fortunes began to change in McColgan's junior season and the Larries produced their best finish in 19 years. The team got hot in the playoffs and ended up making their first conference championship game in 23 seasons. Though they lost, St. Lawrence made the NCAA Tournament and looked to be on the upswing.

In McColgan's senior season, everything seemed to be going right for the Saints. McColgan more than doubled his previous career best for points and led the nation in points per game from the blueline (1.36). He was named an All-American and led the Saints to their first regular season ECAC Hockey title (tied). The Saints then went charging through the conference tournament and won just the second conference championship in team history (the first since the inaugural ECAC tournament in 1962). St. Lawrence received the second eastern seed and, due to the new NCAA Tournament arrangement, received a bye into the quarterfinal round. They thoroughly dominated Wisconsin in the first game, winning 7–0, and enabled the team to take it easy in the second match. SLU returned to the Frozen Four for the first time since 1962 and met top western seed Minnesota. The two fought a hard battle but the Saints came out on top with a narrow 3–2 win.

The Larries went to just their second championship game and performed much better than they had in their first. While the team got behind 0–2 after the first, McColgan assisted on SLU's first goal and then scored to tie the game 3–3 in the second. With time waning and the Larries threatening, Lake Superior's Pete Stauber pushed the net off of its moorings and stopped play. While most thought he should have received a penalty for the maneuver, no infraction was assessed and the teams would need overtime to decide the victor. Unfortunately for St. Lawrence, the Lakers scored first and skated away with the championship.

After graduating, McColgan headed to Finland to start his professional career. His first year with KooKoo turned out poorly for both him and the team and he moved on to Division 1 (the Swedish second league at the time) for two years. He performed much better with Tyringe SoSS but the team narrowly missed out on the postseason in the second year. During this time he was a member of two US Teams at the Spengler Cup, helping the club win the title in 1988.

In 1991 he headed south and joined SV Ritten, spending most of the next 4 years with the club. He ended up with HC Merano in 1996 and helped the club receive a promotion to Serie A in his first year with the club. He played at the top level of Italian hockey for three years, retiring after helping Merano win the championship in 1999. In 2009 McColgan became an assistant coach for Dexter Southfield School, a position he still holds as of 2021.

McColgan was inducted into the St. Lawrence Athletic Hall of Fame in 2015.

Statistics Regular season and playoffs Regular Season Playoffs Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM 1984–85 St. Lawrence ECAC Hockey 1913410————— 1985–86 St. Lawrence ECAC Hockey 2410132326————— 1986–87 St. Lawrence ECAC Hockey 343212426————— 1987–88 St. Lawrence ECAC Hockey 3617324937————— 1988–89 KooKoo SM-liiga 2420222————— 1989–90 Tyringe SoSS Division 1 328243242411218 1990–91 Tyringe SoSS Division 1 263141737————— 1991–92 SV Ritten Serie B 2418123028————— 1992–93 SV Ritten Serie B —————————— 1993–94 SV Ritten Serie B —————————— 1994–95 HC Milano Saima Serie A 82576————— 1994–95 SV Ritten Serie B 2020244416109152420 1995–96 HC Merano Serie B 3431417263114192314 1996–97 HC Merano Serie A —————————— 1997–98 HC Merano Serie A 3422305273————— 1998–99 HC Merano Serie A 15613191910281010 NCAA totals 113 31 69 100 99 — — — — — Division 1 totals 58 11 38 49 79 4 1 1 2 18

International Year Team Event Result GP G A Pts PIM 1988 USA Selects Spengler Cup 5 0 0 0 — 1989 USA Selects Spengler Cup 4th — — — — —

Awards and honors Award Year All-ECAC Hockey First Team 1987–88 AHCA East First-Team All-American 1987–88 All-NCAA All-Tournament Team 1988