Wisconsin All-American senior goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens won the 2017 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award on Saturday.
The Patty Kaz, awarded to the nation’s top collegiate women’s hockey player, is rarely awarded to a goaltender. Desbiens is just the third netminder to be honored in the award’s 21-year history.
A Patty Kaz top-three finalist last year, Desbiens is in the midst of one of the all-time greatest seasons by a women’s hockey goaltender. Going into Sunday’s national championship game against Clarkson, she is 29-1-4, with a .965 save percentage and 0.67 goals against average. She has allowed just 23 goals in 34 games in 2016-17.