University of Wisconsin women’s associate head coach Dan Koch helped recruit freshman defender Caroline Harvey, first seeing her play at a summer tournament when she was in eighth grade.
He said everyone could see early on in preseason practice that the Salem, N.H., native was a special player just watching her skating ability, but he said her breakout moment came in the team’s eighth game of the season against St. Cloud State.
Down 2-0 early, the team had clawed back in the final two periods, and Harvey assisted on both goals. In overtime, Harvey scored a top-shelf goal to extend the team’s winning streak to seven games.
“At that moment,” Koch said, “you could see that she was going to be someone you had to be aware of if you’re an opponent of Wisconsin.”
Little did he know she would repeat the heroics on an even bigger stage later in the season.
Harvey, who goes by “KK” — her sister, Grace, couldn’t pronounce her name when they were little — fell in love with the Wisconsin campus the moment she set foot on it. She loved everything from the facilities and academic offerings to the coaching staff and atmosphere the fans provided. She also liked the idea of winning a national championship, something Wisconsin had done six times before her freshman year, tied with Minnesota for the most in NCAA women’s hockey history.
Prior to playing for Wisconsin, however, Harvey had other hockey obligations to tend to. She was chosen to represent the United States in the 2022 Winter Olympics, eventually winning a silver medal. She said that experience and the adversity Team USA went through over the course of the tournament helped her take a more active leadership role while at Wisconsin.
“When things are hard or when we were down against Minnesota (in the Frozen Four), personally, I didn’t think our team needed to worry,” she said. “Those two goals (against Minnesota) came quick for us. I was never nervous. I felt like I’d been there, in a position like that. I felt like I could be calm and talk to people. I used my experience, even though I’m young, and was leading in different ways.”
Harvey said initially, it was a challenge to take on a leadership role with Wisconsin. She was getting adjusted to not only a new team but also college life in general, so she admitted she stuck to her classmates early on. As she got more comfortable with her teammates, however, she felt like she could speak up. That attitude came out of necessity; when the energy in the locker room was down or she could sense her teammates were nervous, Harvey took it upon herself to give the team a lift.
“Someone has to do it,” she said. “We need something to happen. We need change.”
Koch said Harvey has a strong presence, and her ability to lead early on was something they were excited about.
“She thought she could help and benefit our leadership group and share ideas,” he said. “She’s someone who doesn’t have to say a lot. She leads by example. I think a lot of our players see her determination, her competitiveness, and that’s what you’re hoping for from the young players, to feel comfortable right away to be able to say something if she has to.”
In her freshman season, Harvey scored 13 goals — the fourth-most in school history for a defender — and added 26 assists for a total of 39 points, eighth among all rookie skaters in program history.
For her efforts, she was named a second-team All-American by the American Hockey Coaches Association, the first Wisconsin freshman to earn All-America status since Meghan Hunter in the 2000-01 season.
The team also enjoyed a lot of success. After winning two games against Minnesota State in the first round of the WCHA tournament, Wisconsin earned its 13th consecutive trip to the WCHA Final Faceoff, falling to Minnesota in the semifinals, 4-2. Wisconsin earned an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament and eventually would see Minnesota again, this time in the NCAA Frozen Four, after victories against Long Island University and Colgate.
In the Frozen Four, Minnesota struck first, and the 1-0 lead would hold until the third period. Wisconsin scored two goals a minute apart early in the third period, but Minnesota scored its second goal of the game with 1:11 remaining to send the game into overtime.
In the locker room prior to the overtime period, Harvey felt she needed to say something.
“I could sense there was a lot of tension,” she said. “Our captains had said we shouldn’t be nervous; this is when we should be the most confident. I said something like, ‘We cannot be nervous. We cannot be scared. I believe in every single one of you in this locker room. You guys have to believe, too.’ ”
It took almost the entire 20 minutes of hockey, but at the 16:47 mark, Harvey received a pass from Jesse Compher and shot, again hitting the top shelf of the goal to win the game for the Badgers.
“That’s the biggest goal I’ve ever scored, so it was crazy,” she said. “You could tell how excited we were, how relieved, how enthusiastic we all were. We just punched our ticket to the final. Everyone was so, so excited and happy. It was great to share that moment with my teammates.”
There was one team in Wisconsin’s way for a record-breaking championship: Ohio State. In four previous games against the Buckeyes, Wisconsin had lost three of them, including a 3-1 loss on Senior Day. Harvey said she made sure, however, that her teammates remembered they also had beaten Ohio State once (a 6-5 overtime victory on Feb. 18) and could do it again.
Six and a half minutes into the game, Kirsten Simms scored to put the Badgers ahead by one. It was all the team would need, as goalie Cami Kronish turned away all 31 shots and shut out top-ranked Ohio State. It was the first shutout in the national championship game since Wisconsin blanked Minnesota in the 2019 championship.
“We really locked in,” Harvey said. “We all were doing our jobs, blocking shots with sticks and bodies. It really paid off.”
After the team celebrated and took photos, the Wisconsin players skated off and gave their sticks to the kids remaining at the rink. Then, it was time to refuel; she ate a salad and a pesto chicken sandwich.
Reflecting on the incredible year she had, she said it all didn’t feel real.
She would have to snap out of her dream-like state quickly, however. Only a couple weekends removed from the NCAA national championship, Harvey was invited to attend the U.S. Women’s National Evaluation Camp for a chance to play at the IIHF Women’s World Championship, where her goal was to make the team and finally win a gold medal at the senior level.
She did that and then some.
Not only did Harvey make the team, but she led all players in the tournament with 14, was named the tournament's best defender and won that gold medal.
https://twitter.com/usahockey/status/1667550871042027521?s=20
That, coupled with her season at Wisconsin, led to her winning the Bob Allen Women's Player of the Year Award, handed out by USA Hockey to honor an outstanding American-born women's hockey player.
"I honestly wasn't sure she had the right person," Harvey said to USA Hockey about when she got the call that she won the award.
Now, the focus is back to Wisconsin to win more championships.
“We want to win a couple more national championships in the next couple of years,” she said. “We don’t want to wait to make that happen. We did it this year; we can do it again.”
