4 good, 1 bad: Wisconsin women's hockey milestones vs Vermont
Wisconsin women's hockey advanced to the Ice Breaker Tournament championship, setting up a meeting of the Hall sisters
The Halls will battle for the hardware in Saturday’s Ice Breaker Tournament championship game. An 8-1 Wisconsin women’s hockey semifinal victory over the Vermont Catamounts set up a title game bout between the No. 1 Wisconsin Badgers (7-0-0, 4-0-0 WCHA) and the Union College Garnet Chargers (4-1-2, 0-0-0 ECAC), pitting a pair of sisters against one another.
UW forward Cassie Hall scored twice against UVM, giving her sole posession of the team-lead in goals with seven. The junior is off to a hot start, trailing only Minnesota Golden Gophers standout Abbey Murphy’s nation-leading 12 goals.
On the other bench Saturday at 2:37 p.m. central, is Cassie’s sister, Courtney Hall. Courtney is in her second season as an assistant coach with Union. Beyond the sisters, it will be a Hall family reunion.
“My whole family is going to be there: my mom, dad, brother [and] his fiancé. So it’s going to be a very special weekend. So, I’m looking forward to it.” Cassie said previewing the weekend. “Hopefully, we can end up playing them in the finals. I think it will be special.”
The reunion matchup is now set, thanks to some milestone performances by Wisconsin.
Caroline Harvey on career-best goal streak
Despite the impressive heights she has already reached, Caroline Harvey is on an offensive tear unlike any other in her career. With two goals against Vermont, the Badgers’ program record holder in points by a defender has scored five times in UW’s last four games. It is the best goal-scoring stretch over four games in her career, and beats her previous-best streak of goals in three consecutive games amidst a 14-game point streak by Harvey to begin her 2024-25 campaign.
The Salem, New Hampshire native has asssisted on eight of her teammates goals in the past four games, during which she is contributing offensively at a 2.0 point-per-game pace.
After representing Team USA in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, Harvey is poised to return to the Olympics again in 2026. This time around, she is taking time away from UW during her senior campaign to train and compete with USA Hockey, but the Badgers’ captain has maintained her elite play thus far.
“We’re present when we’re back with the Badgers,” Harvey said ahead of this weekend’s tournament.
Lacey Eden tallies 100th career assist
Among Harvey’s Wisconsin teammates hoping to join her in Milan this February during the Games, is Lacey Eden. Eden recorded a pair of assists in the win over the Catamounts. Her second, which the fifth-year received credit for after taking a shot from the point by Laney Potter off her back, deflecting it into the waiting stick of Harvey, marked the 100th of her career.
With the pair of helpers, the Annapolis, Maryland native becomes the 13th player in Wisconsin women’s hockey history to reach triple digits. If Eden matches the 33 assists she tallied a season ago, she would finish in the top-five of the program record book.
The Badgers have relied on Eden in all facets of the game in her final season of eligibility. From power plays, the penalty kill, all the way to increased work at the faceoff dot, the alternate captain has been a do-it-all player. Eden traditionally plays on the wing, but has already taken 43 faceoffs this year. She lined up for only 41 draws all last season.
With the departure of UW’s all-time assists leader and reliable faceoff winner Casey O’Brien for the professional ranks, Eden joked this week that she would “go back and watch some of [O’Brien’s] film, take some notes, you know? Get some advice from the G.O.A.T. herself. Yeah, she was pretty solid last year. I didn’t need to take many faceoffs because she won them all.”
Laney Potter ties season-best goal total already
Eden’s two assists came on goals by two different Wisconsin defenders off to hot starts on the stat sheet. Along with Harvey, Laney Potter is in the early stages of an impressive season.
Seven games into her junior campaign, Potter is now up to four goals, tying her career-high for goals in a season. Despite not being much of a goal-scorer in her first two seasons, the Pennsylvania native now finds herself one goal shy of the best mark by any defender in the country, trailing only Harvey.
With fellow Badgers blue-liner Laila Edwards “out for a little while” with an MCL injury, Potter has made the most of her opportunities with a bit of a brighter spotlight on her. Playing with Wisconsin’s top power-play unit, Potter helped UW score twice on its four opportunities with the advantage against Vermont.
Grace Bickett contributes in new everyday role
Grace Bickett and Mackenzie Jones each assisted on a goal in the Ice Breaker Tournament semifinal, showing promise in their newfound roles as everyday contributors. The duo had split days in the lineup through Wisconsin’s first four games before Edwards’ injury.
Bickett assisted on Hall’s first goal of the day. Bickett’s outlet pass on a neutral zone regroup turned into a two-on-one rush with Hall and Kelly Gorbatenko skating toward UVM goaltender Ellie Simmons with only defender Ashley Kokavec to beat. Hall’s attempted pass to Gorbatenko bounced off Kokavec’s leg, catching Simmons’ out of position as she had already began sliding across the crease after the attempted pass. Hall corralled the bouncing puck for the goal and Bickett’s first assist of the season.
Bickett appeared in seven games as a rookie, recording an assist during Wisconsin women’s hockey’s sweep of the Bemidji State Beavers in the first round of the WCHA Tournament. With a more frequent role expected of her this season as head coach Mark Johnson has dressed and rotated seven defenders in his lineup, it could be to UW’s long-term benefit that she sees additional ice time now. Bickett will likely slot into the Badgers’ top six defenders when Harvey and Edwards compete in the Olympics.
Wisconsin women’s hockey surrenders first goal to any team in tournament field
Harvey and Bickett were on the unfortunate end of the lone blemish in Wisconsin’s 8-1 victory. Catamounts forward Stella Retrum scored UVM’s lone goal on the afternoon after a defensive miscue by the Badgers.
First, Harvey failed to clear the zone on a breakout pass on her forehand. Kokavec gathered the puck, sending it to the slot. Bickett was unable to swat the puck away from the middle of the zone, resulting in a Vermont goal.
The goal represented the first any of the other three teams in the Ice Breaker had ever scored against UW. Wisconsin was undefeated with four shutout victories over Vermont with the two programs last meeting in 2005. The Badgers had previously swept Union, blanking the Garnet Chargers in 2007. Wisconsin has never faced the St. Anselm Hawks.
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