The 49-year-old was at the helm when the Americans won gold at the 2017 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championship on home ice in Plymouth last month.

A 3-2 over-time victory over Canada saw the US win the global title for the fourth time in a row and Stauber has been tasked with winning a first women's Olympic ice hockey gold since Nagano 1998 in Pyeongchang.

"Robb knows what it takes to win at the highest levels of the game," said Jim Smith, President of USA Hockey. 

"We're excited to have him lead our US women's national team up to and through the 2018 Olympic Winter Games."

Stauber was an assistant coach for the American team at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, where the country lost in the final to Canada.

The Canadians have won all four Olympic titles since the American victory in Nagano, where women's ice hockey debuted. 

"It's a tremendous honour to represent USA Hockey and our country in this capacity," said Stauber, who has worked with the women's team since 2010 in various roles and played the sport professionally for a decade.

"It's a privilege I don't take lightly and, at the end of the day, our mission is very straightforward and that's to win the gold medal in Pyeongchang."

The US will play in the Four Nations Cup in November and other games will be arranged before the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February.

Their team nearly didn't appear at the World Championship in Plymouth after players threatened a boycott over a pay dispute.

A "historic" deal was eventually agreed before the team went on to seal the title.