Caroline Harvey powers through injury for Wisconsin women's hockey
Wisconsin women's hockey managed to get just enough shots past Duluth Bulldogs standout goaltender Ève Gascon
If you only watched the series finale between No. 1 Wisconsin women’s hockey and the visiting No. 4 Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs, you would be surprised to learn that the best player on the ice in Game 2 suffered a gnarly injury in Game 1.
In the series opener, Caroline Harvey missed some time near the end of the second period after taking a puck to the neck. It did not hold the Wisconsin Badgers’ captain out for long. Harvey returned to the lineup in the third period and delivered a game-tying goal with 20.9 seconds remaining in regulation, setting up Cassie Hall’s game-winner 12.3 seconds later.
Harvey picked up on Sunday right where she left off Saturday, putting together one of the most impressive offensive performances of her career, leading her team to a 4-0 victory.
Caroline Harvey records three points, ten shots
Harvey put the Badgers (6-0-0, 4-0-0 WCHA) on the board early with an individual effort. After starting with the puck behind the Wisconsin blue line, the WCHA Preseason Player of the Year turned on an edge and quickly cut up ice along the left boards. Navigating past a pair of Duluth skaters, Harvey carried the puck below the left faceoff circle in front of Bulldogs goaltender Ève Gascon.
From that tough angle, Harvey somehow found enough daylight between Gascon and the left post to put the puck through.
“Sometimes those are the ones that catch goalies off guard, I think,” Harvey said in a post-game interview. “The goalie’s probably not going to expect that. She thinks you’re just gonna dish it off, like [to] set up. So I was like, take my chances on this one. I don’t know. So I just shot it, and I guess it went in.”
Harvey added two assists for a game-high three points, all three of them coming on the power play. Adéla Šapovalivová tipped in a shot by Harvey from the point late in the second period, and Harvey was credited with a secondary assist on a one-timer goal by Lacey Eden, primarily assisted by Kirsten Simms.
“I know we had a ton of special teams out there, and I think that was huge,” said Harvey. “The momentum of it as a group, we were able to get going from pretty early on. And I think that helped a lot with our momentum and carried through the game. “
The two-time WCHA Defender of the Year recorded ten shots on goal (tied for the second-most in a single game of her career), but, somehow, the one from the toughest angle of all was the lone goal she managed on an afternoon Gascon made save after save.
“We had a bunch of shots, a bunch of chances, and the goalie still played unbelievable. Ève, she’s so good,” Harvey said, complimenting her opponent.
Ava McNaughton wins goaltending duel
Wisconsin women’s hockey scored four goals in each game of the series, but Gascon kept the Duluth Bulldogs within striking distance all weekend. The 2024-25 first-team All-American stopped 95 of the 103 shots she faced across both games. Bulldogs defenders blocked another 17 shots in each contest.
“There was at least three [shots] that you think are going in, and all of a sudden,” Wisconsin women’s hockey head coach Mark Johnson said, “here comes this glove. Like what you see on ESPN in Major League Baseball. You know, guy makes this unbelievable, like just gets his glove up, makes a catch. Like, how do you do that? It’s like whoa.”
Ultimately, in the battle of conference rival goaltenders, Gascon, the reigning WCHA Goaltender of the Year, and Wisconsin netminder Ava McNaughton, the reigning HCA National Goaltender of the Year, backstopped her team to a series sweep.
After allowing three goals in Game 1, McNaughton was much happier with her performance in Game 2. The junior stopped all 22 shots she faced. From a breakaway opportunity by UMD forward Caitlin Kraemer, to a full two-minute five-on-three Bulldogs power play, McNaughton stood tall through it all.
“It’s definitely good to end on a high note, especially after yesterday,” McNaughton said, assessing her performance. “It was kind of a chippy, sloppy game kind of back and forth. Sometimes you want some of the goals back and on a different day you might make some of those saves. To be able to kind of turn it around today and be more more comfortable in the net and feel a little more at home was definitely helpful.”
In a game with 18 called penalties, plenty of skirmishes in front of the net, and loose pucks in the crease, McNaughton kept every shot that came her way above the goal line.
“Even if [UMD] didn’t have as many opportunities [as UW], I think the ones [UMD] did have were pretty quality opportunities,” McNaughton said. “They were obviously going into the net hard and trying to bang one in. It’s always hard when the puck’s in the crease. Everyone’s just battling for it, it’s just a matter of compete. You try to take up as much net as you can and hope we can get a stick on it or get a freeze, but it’s definitely chaotic and it’s hard to manage sometimes.”
Despite McNaughton’s own standout performance, the nation’s leader in shutouts had plenty of complementary words for the opposing goaltender.
“Some of the saves Ève was able to come up with, obviously, unbelievable,” remarked McNaughton. “She made it hard for us, and their defense definitely did their part too. So, gotta give them credit there. There are no wimpy shot blocks. They’re probably bruised up over there; I know we would be. It’s brutal.”
