Kristin Elizabeth "Krissy" Wendell-Pohl (born September 12, 1981) is an American former women's

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player, and current amateur scout for The

Pittsburgh Penguins The Pittsburgh Penguins (colloquially known as the Pens) are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference, and have playe ...

. During the 2004–05 season, Wendell set an

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

record for most short-handed goals in one season, with seven. At the conclusion of her college career, she held the record for most career short-handed goals, with 16. Both marks have since been equaled by

Meghan Agosta Meghan Christina Agosta (born February 12, 1987) is a Canadian women's ice hockey forward, who last played for the Montreal Stars of the Canadian Women's Hockey League. Agosta plays for the Canada women's national ice hockey team and is a gold ...

. Wendell is currently in the Top 10 for all-time NCAA scoring, with 237 career

point Point or points may refer to: Places * Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States * Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland * Point ...

Playing career

While attending

Park Center Senior High School Park Center Senior High School (PCSH) is a four-year public high school located in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, United States, on 7300 Brooklyn Blvd. PCSH is located near the border of two northwest twin cities suburbs, Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Cen ...

Brooklyn Park, Minnesota Brooklyn Park is a suburban city on the west bank of the Mississippi River, upstream from (north of) downtown Minneapolis in northern Hennepin County, Minnesota, Hennepin County. It is the List of cities in Minnesota, sixth-largest city in the U ...

, Wendell led the girls' hockey team to a state championship. At the time she graduated from high school, Wendell was the state of Minnesota's all-time leading girls' high school scorer. Wendell was a co-captain of the

Minnesota Golden Gophers women's ice hockey The Minnesota Golden Gophers women's ice hockey team plays for the University of Minnesota at the Twin Cities campus in Minneapolis. The team is one of the members of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) and competes in the National C ...

team. A

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

, she scored 133 points in two seasons (2002–2003, 2003–2004) for the Gophers. Wendell scored the game-winning goal in the 2005

Western Collegiate Hockey Association The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...

(WCHA) championship game against

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. Wendel followed that with a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

against ECAC champion

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. Wendell was the NCAA runner-up in the scoring race to her teammate

Natalie Darwitz Natalie Rose Darwitz (born October 13, 1983) is an American ice hockey player. Natalie was the Captain of the US Women's National Team for several seasons beginning with the 2007–08 season. She won three World Championships between 2005 and 2 ...

with 98 points. Wendell did lead the NCAA in short-handed goals, with seven. She won the

Patty Kazmaier Award The Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award is given to the top female college ice hockey player in the United States. The award is presented during the women's annual ice hockey championship, the Frozen Four. The award was first presented in 1998. The awa ...

in 2005 for best female collegiate hockey player. Wendell was the first player from Minnesota, and the first from the WCHA, to win the award. Wendell was one of the stars of the

United States women's national ice hockey team The United States women's national ice hockey team is controlled by USA Hockey. The U.S. has been one of the most successful women's ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating ...

, and served as their

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

. She made her debut with the team at th
1998 Three Nations Cup
At the

2005 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2005 IIHF World Women's Championships was held April 2–9, 2005, in Linköping, at Cloetta Center (now called the Saab Arena), and Norrköping, at Himmelstalundshallen, in Sweden. USA won their first gold medal at the World Championships, de ...

, Wendell was named MVP, and led all players in scoring with nine points, as the United States won its first

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

at the women's world championships. She was a member of the United States team at the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...

, winning a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

Post-playing career

Following her playing career, Wendell-Pohl coached girls high school hockey in Minnesota with her husband, and former NHL player, Johnny Pohl. She was then hired by the

as a scout on November 6, 2021, becoming the third woman to hold a scouting position with an NHL team after

Cammi Granato Catherine Michelle Granato (born March 25, 1971) is an American former ice hockey player and one of the first women to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November 2010. She currently works as an assistant general manager for the Vancou ...

and

Blake Bolden Blake Alexis Bolden (born March 10, 1991) is an American ice hockey player and scout for the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL). On October 11, 2015, she became the first African-American player to compete in the National Women' ...

. Her responsibilities are to scout amateur players, predominantly high school players, in the Minnesota area.

Personal life

In , Wendell was the fifth girl to play in the

Little League World Series The Little League World Series is an annual baseball tournament for children—typically boys—aged 10 to 12 years old, held in the Eastern United States. Originally called the National Little League Tournament, it was later renamed for the Wor ...

, and the first to start at the

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

position. Wendell was featured on the

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

game show, ''

Figure It Out ''Figure It Out'' is an American children's panel game show that aired on Nickelodeon. The original series, hosted by Summer Sanders, ran for four seasons from July 7, 1997, to December 12, 1999. The show was revived in 2012, with Jeff Sutphen ...

'', when she was 16. She married

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

player John Pohl on August 11, 2007, in

Roseville, Minnesota Roseville is a city in Ramsey County, Minnesota, United States. It is one of two Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Twin Cities suburbs that are adjacent to both Saint Paul and Minneapolis (the other is Lauderdale, Minnesota, Lauderdale). The land comprisin ...

. They have three daughters.

Awards

* 2000 Minnesota Ms. Hockey Award * 2000 Bob Johnson Award for excellence in international competition (awarded at the USA Hockey Annual Congress) * 2001 USA Hockey player of the year * 2002 Olympic Silver Medal * 2003, 2004 NCAA D1 W. Ice Hockey Champion * 2004 Little League Hall of Excellence * 2004 Most outstanding player award in the NCAA Division I Women's Hockey Tournament * 2005 Patty Kazmaier Award * 2005 USA Hockey Bob Johnson Award * 2005 Most Valuable Player, Women's World Hockey ChampionshipsCollins gem Hockey Facts and Stats 2009-10, p.545, Andrew Podnieks, Harper Collins Publishers Ltd, Toronto, Canada, * 2006 Olympic Bronze Medal * 2007 All-Star, Women's World Hockey Championships * 2019 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame

References

External links

*
Krissy Wendell
at the U.S. Olympic Team website via

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...