Vaillancourt Secures Kazmaier

DULUTH, Minn.—A day after the Harvard women’s hockey team saw its season come to a disappointing end with a 4-1 loss to Wisconsin in the Frozen Four semifinal round, the Crimson was given some positive news to take back home with it.

Junior forward Sarah Vaillancourt won the Patty Kazmaier Award, given annually to the best player in women’s college hockey.

Vaillancourt led Harvard with 26 goals and 36 assists, was fifth in the nation with 1.82 points per game, and tied for second with 1.06 assists per game.

“She’s relentless in her preparation and she’s relentless in her performance,” Crimson coach Katey Stone said. “She’s such a competitor.”

Vaillancourt thanked her coaches, teammates, and parents in a teary-eyed acceptance speech on March 21 during the award ceremony at the Radisson Hotel Duluth-Harborview’s banquet hall in Duluth, Minn., emceed by former Harvard defenseman and fellow Kazmaier recipient Angela Ruggiero ’04.

“I’m emotional because I know how this award is not just for me,” Vaillancourt said after her speech. “I get emotional because I know how hard everyone has worked and how hard I have for this.”

The French-Canadian had tough competition for the award in Mercyhurst forward Meghan Agosta, who scored a NCAA-leading 40 goals this season, and Minnesota-Duluth goaltender Kim Martin, who boasted a 1.49 goals against average and a .947 save percentage.

But Vaillancourt came out on top in the end, joining a long line of Crimson players to win the award. Of the 11 times the Kazmaier trophy has been handed out, six of the winners have worn a Harvard uniform.

“We’re very fortunate that we’ve had so many players come through our program,” Stone said.

Becoming the latest winner of the award officially reserved Vaillancourt’s place in the company of the all-time Crimson greats.

“We have that banner at the Bright [Hockey Center] and there’s a few Harvard names on it,” Vaillancourt said. “Everyone dreams one day to be recognized as that player. I have to admit I’ve looked at that banner a few times.”

The last Harvard player to take home the Kazmaier award before Vaillancourt was Julie Chu ’07, who was in attendance at the reception as an assistant coach for Minnesota-Duluth.

“I know the type of player [Vaillancourt] is,” Chu said. “She’s intense...she’s passionate and she pushes herself and her teammates every day. She’s had a great, phenomenal season, and I was really happy that she got the award.”

The Kazmaier trophy marks the culmination of three years of hard work by Vaillancourt, who came to the Crimson as an extremely talented but raw player with a shoot-first mentality and distaste for defense. In her time at Harvard, Vaillancourt has developed into a complete player with passing ability to rival her shooting prowess and an equally intense style of play at all ends of the ice.

“She’s learned to play in all three zones,” Stone said. “She’s become a very comprehensive player...She’s elevated her development on all levels.”

Vaillancourt’s rise to becoming one of the top all-around players in the nation has set an example for her teammates, particularly freshman Liza Ryabkina—another highly skilled player with a penchant for charging the net every time she touches the puck.

Vaillancourt has taken Ryabkina under her wing—“whether Liza likes it or not,” as Stone puts it—in hopes of instilling that same type of well-rounded mentality that could take Ryabkina down a path similar to her de facto mentor.

But last night was all about Vaillancourt, and Stone expressed parental pride when speaking about her star forward.

“It’s like watching your own kid,” Stone said. “Sarah and I have a special relationship and I’m filled with pride as if she were my own daughter.”

For Vaillancourt and the Crimson as a whole, the award ceremony officially ended another season of hockey, and it gave the team a chance to celebrate one more time despite not being able to take home that elusive national championship.

“We were a family all year, and we’re one in victory and one in defeat,” Vaillancourt said. “We had a tough end last night, but the season that we had was unbelievable and...for me to win this award and to be part of a team like this—[that’s] an award for me too.”

—Staff writer Loren Amor can be reached at lamor@fas.harvard.edu.