Women’s hockey: Desbiens’ impressive season acknowledged by voters

Junior goaltender wins WCHA Player of the Year, named finalist for Patty Kazmaier Award

by Eric Goldsobel

March 3, 2016

Elliot Moormann

Anne-Renée Desbiens set a new highest-standard for NCAA goaltenders this season.

The junior goaltender was named WCHA Player of the Year on Thursday after posting a 0.77 goals against average and an NCAA record 18 shutouts.

That record stands for both men’s and women’s play.

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Desbiens also surpassed the previous NCAA record for shutout minutes by 100, tallying 543:53 scoreless minutes from Oct. 3 vs. Providence to Nov. 14 against University of Minnesota-Duluth, who she will face this Saturday in the WCHA Tournament semifinal.

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Desbiens took her place in an impressive lineage of Wisconsin goaltenders by surpassing records set by former Badgers Jessie Vetter, two-time U.S. Olympian, and Alex Rigsby.

Vetter holds Wisconsin’s goals against record (0.83), but Desbiens’ 0.77 mark so far this season bests the U.S. starting goaltender while playing in 10 more games. Desbiens is even on pace to top the Badgers’ record for single-season save percentage, which Christine Dufour set in the 2006-07 season (.955), after stopping .958 percent of shots this season.

Desbiens’ 29-3-1 record and numerous statistical marks merit the award and she is only the second goaltender to win in the award’s 16-year history.

Her performances placed her at the top of all three major statistical goaltending categories (GAA, save percentage, win percentage) and the awards don’t stop at the WCHA-level.

The Quebec-native is also among the final three candidates for the Patty Kazmaier Award, given to the top player in women’s college hockey, along with Northeastern’s Kendall Coyne and Boston College’s Alex Carpenter.

Stats and awards aside, Desbiens’ focus will be on this weekend when Wisconsin plays UM-Duluth in the semifinal of the WCHA Tournament, the very team that broke her shutout streak.