When you have a season as good as the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team has had, the accolades always seem to pile up. In this case, it’s no different.
The Badgers earned four yearly honors — the player, forward, coach and defender awards — and placed eight on the All-WCHA teams announced by the conference earlier this week. Four were on the first team, the most in school history. Additionally, four Badgers were named finalists for the Patty Kazmaier Award, given to the top player in women’s college hockey, the most of any school since 2013.
Here are all of the Badgers who were honored with yearly awards:
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Casey O’Brien, player and forward
O’Brien was named the WCHA’s Player and Forward of the Year, earned a First Team All-WCHA honor and was one of the four UW players to be a finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award.
The fifth-year senior led the NCAA in scoring with 24 goals and 55 assists. During Wisconsin’s WCHA first-round series against Bemidji State, O’Brien broke Hilary Knight’s all-time scoring record with her 263rd point. With her next point this season, she will become the first NCAA player to reach the 80-point mark in seven seasons.
O’Brien became the 11th Badger to win the WCHA’s top honor, and the second straight Badger to sweep the Player and Forward of the Year honors.
Caroline Harvey, defense
Harvey missed time due to injury last season, but she still racked up the awards. Fully healed all season this year, she moved it up another level.
The junior defender led all NCAA blue-liners in scoring with 15 goals and 40 assists on the year. She was named the WCHA’s Defender of the Year for her efforts, the second straight season she has received the award, along with being named First Team All-WCHA and a Patty Kazmaier Award top-10 finalist.
Perhaps most impressive is her plus-72 rating for the season, 36 better than anyone not on the Badgers.
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Mark Johnson, head coach
After leading the Badgers to their best regular season win total in program history (31), Johnson took home his 10th WCHA Coach of the Year honor — the most among any coach in the WCHA.
Johnson is the only coach the Badgers have ever had and has shown no signs of slowing down this season. Wisconsin will look to win its eighth national title under Johnson this postseason.
Other honors
Along with Harvey and O’Brien, junior forwards Laila Edwards and Kirsten Simms were named First Team All-WCHA and UW’s other two finalists for the Patty Kazmaier Award. Edwards led the NCAA with 30 goals while Simms finished with 64 points, tied for the second-most in the NCAA with Edwards and behind O’Brien.
Sophomore goaltender Ava McNaughton and redshirt senior forward Lacey Eden were named to the All-WCHA’s Second Team, sophomore defender Laney Potter was honored on the third team and freshman forward Maggie Scannell was a member of the All-Rookie Team. McNaughton is also a finalist for the HCA Goaltender of the Year Award, given to the top goaltender in the entire nation.
The Badgers (33-1-2) are in Duluth for the WCHA Final Faceoff this weekend.