interview with The Athletic<\/a> that Harvey \u201chas the potential to revolutionize the game.\u201d<\/p>\nThe powerhouse Wisconsin Badgers are the No. 2 seed at the Frozen Four this weekend and have the best offense in the NCAA. No team has scored more goals this season than Wisconsin\u2019s 210, which is 31 more than second-place Ohio State (179). Only Penn State had a better defense than Wisconsin, which has allowed just 1.45 goals against per game.<\/p>\n
As captain in her senior season, Harvey, the team\u2019s No. 1 defender, has been a major driver of the Badgers\u2019 success.<\/p>\n
At 23 years old, she is already the most offensively gifted defender in women\u2019s hockey and the most likely No. 1 pick in the upcoming Professional Women\u2019s Hockey League draft. Harvey is deceptive with the puck on the offensive blue line with incredible vision \u2014 her 1.41 assists per game leads the NCAA this season \u2014 but it\u2019s her skating that makes Harvey special.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t seen a player with Caroline\u2019s speed at the blue line,\u201d said longtime Wisconsin associate coach Dan Koch. \u201cThen her ability to add the offensive side too is really unique. It\u2019s hard to compare her to anyone else in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Friday, in the national semifinal against tournament host Penn State, Harvey logged big minutes and set up Kirsten Simms, who scored the overtime winner in a thrilling 4-3 victory. Now, the No. 2-ranked Badgers are heading to a fourth straight national championship game against Ohio State, where Harvey will play a starring role in her final collegiate hockey game.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously it\u2019s been super exciting these last couple of months,\u201d Harvey said about winning Olympic gold, tournament MVP and now the Patty Kaz. \u201cBut all that matters is tomorrow\u2019s championship game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to bring that natty back to Madison.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forwards Murphy (Minnesota) and Tessa Janecke (Penn State) were the other two finalists for the Patty Kazmaier this season. Both seniors are expected to be first-round picks in the PWHL Draft, alongside top 10 Patty Kaz finalists \u2014 and Wisconsin forwards \u2014 Lacey Eden, Laila Edwards and Simms.<\/p>\n
The three finalists and winner were selected by a 13-person selection committee made up of coaches, print and broadcast media and a USA Hockey representative.<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s note: The Athletic\u2019s Hailey Salvian served on the Patty Kazmaier Award selection committee this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. \u2014 Caroline Harvey already solidified herself as one of the very best women\u2019s hockey players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[462],"tags":[1879,5,4,465,466,1581],"class_list":{"0":"post-515409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl-draft","8":"tag-college-sports","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-nhl-draft","12":"tag-nhl-entry-draft","13":"tag-womens-hockey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116268973738700829","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}