Ann-Renée Desbiens (born April 10, 1994) is a Canadian

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

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

for the Montreal chapter of the

Professional Women's Hockey Players Association The Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) is a nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization dedicated to advocating for the promotion of professional women's ice hockey. It was founded in May 2019 following the dissolution of the Canadian W ...

(PWHPA) and member of the

Canada women's national ice hockey team The Canadian women's national ice hockey team is the ice hockey team representing Canada in women's hockey. The team is overseen by Hockey Canada, a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation and participates in international competitions ...

. She participated at the

2015 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2015 IIHF Women's World Championship was the 16th such event hosted by the International Ice Hockey Federation. The competition also served as qualifications for the 2016 competition. Venues included the Malmö Isstadion, and Rosengårds Is ...

, the

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics ( ko, 2018년 동계 올림픽, Icheon sip-pal nyeon Donggye Ollimpik), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (french: Les XXIIIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver; ko, 제23회 동계 올림픽, Jeisipsamhoe Donggye Ollimpi ...

., the

2021 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2021 IIHF Women's World Championship was an international ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), which was contested in Calgary, Alberta, from 20 to 31 August 2021, at WinSport Arena. It was origin ...

, the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics (2022年冬季奥林匹克运动会), officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), was an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Bei ...

, and the

2022 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2022 IIHF Women's World Championship is an international ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and scheduled to be contested in Herning and Frederikshavn, Denmark from 26 August to 4 September 2022. ...

Playing career

Desbiens was the first female player drafted to the

Quebec Junior AAA Hockey League The Ligue de Hockey Junior du Québec (LHJQ) or Quebec Junior Hockey League (QJHL) is a Hockey Québec Canadian Junior A ice hockey league and is a member of Hockey Canada and the Canadian Junior Hockey League. The winner of the QJHL playoffs c ...

, the second-highest men's junior league in Québec after the

QMJHL The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (french: Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Québec; abbreviated ''QMJHL'' in English, ''LHJMQ'' in French) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues that constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The l ...

. She was selected by the Loups de La Tuque but was cut before ever playing a game because the coach didn't believe there was any point in developing girls. That same year, she participated in the

Shawinigan Cataractes The Shawinigan Cataractes (french: Cataractes de Shawinigan) are a junior ice hockey team in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The team is based in Shawinigan, Quebec, Canada. The Cataractes have been previously known as the Shawinigan Brui ...

training camp. She made one playoff appearance for the Montréal Stars of the

Canadian Women's Hockey League The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL; french: Ligue canadienne de hockey féminin ‒ LCHF) was a women's ice hockey league. Established in 2007 as a Canadian women's senior league in the Greater Toronto Area, Montreal, and Ottawa, the leag ...

(CWHL) in 2012, as the team won the

Clarkson Cup The Clarkson Cup (french: La Coupe Clarkson) is a women's ice hockey trophy, which from 2009 to 2019 was awarded to the winner of the Canadian Women's Hockey Championship (CWHL champion). With the folding of the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CW ...

NCAA

In 2013, she was offered a scholarship to play at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

in the

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 and ...

, despite not being fluent in English. Across four years with the Wisconsin Badgers women's ice hockey program, she led the team to four

Frozen Four The annual NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament is a college ice hockey tournament held in the United States by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to determine the top men's team in Division I. Like other Division I cham ...

appearances, tallied 99 wins in 122 games, and set several individual records, including highest career

save percentage Save percentage (often known by such symbols as SV%, SVS%, SVP, PCT) is a statistic in various goal-scoring sports that track saves as a statistic. In ice hockey and lacrosse, it is a statistic that represents the percentage of shots on goal ...

(SV%), at .963, and lowest

goals against average Goals against average (GAA) also known as "average goals against" or "AGA" is a statistic used in field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and water polo that is the mean of goals allowed per game by a goaltender or goalkeeper (depending on ...

(GAA), with 0.71. During her senior year, on November 6, 2016, Desbiens broke Noora Räty's record for most NCAA career shutouts of any gender. In a 6–0 shutout victory against the

Bemidji State Beavers The Bemidji State Beavers are the athletic teams that represent Bemidji State University, located in Bemidji, Minnesota, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Beavers compete as members of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference for ...

, Desbiens would log career shutout number 44. At the end of her senior year, Desbiens was awarded 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 ...

as the top female college ice hockey player in the United States. Desbiens was the first Canadian selected at the

2016 NWHL Draft Sixteen or 16 may refer to: *16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17 *one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016 Films * ''Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film * ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film di ...

, chosen in the first round, fourth overall by the

Boston Pride The Boston Pride are a professional women's ice hockey team based in Boston, Massachusetts. They are one of the four charter franchises of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), formerly the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL; 2015–2021). ...

. As of 2021, she has not appeared with the team nor made any indication of interest in playing in the NWHL. After the 2018 Olympics, during the 2018-19 season, Desbiens took a break from hockey, citing exhaustion and the uncertainty of options to play professionally. In May 2019, she returned to hockey by joining the PWHPA. In the 2019–20 season, Desbiens appeared for the Fond du Lac Bears in the Great Lakes Hockey League, an elite men's amateur league. She also participated in the women's ice hockey showcase at the

2020 NHL All-Star Game The 2020 National Hockey League All-Star Game was held on January 25, 2020, at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri, the home of the St. Louis Blues. The city previously hosted the NHL All-Star Game in 1970 and 1988 at the former St. L ...

, making 15 saves as the Canadian All-Stars beat the American All-Stars.

PWHPA

Standing between the pipes for Team Bauer (Montreal) in the 2021 Secret Cup, which was the Canadian leg of the 2020–21 PWHPA Dream Gap Tour, Ann-Renee Desbiens registered 19 saves in a 4-2 championship game win over Team Sonnet (Toronto).

International play

Desbiens was selected to play for Team Canada at the

, where she guided Canada to a silver medal. She was also selected to play for Team Canada at the

, where she again won a silver medal. On January 11, 2022, Desbiens was named to Canada's 2022 Olympic team.

Personal life

Desbiens has a master's degree in accounting. She has named

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 ...

goaltender

Patrick Roy Patrick Jacques Roy (; born October 5, 1965) is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey goaltender and executive, who serves as the head coach for the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). In 2017, Roy was named o ...

as a role model, her family being supporters of the

Quebec Nordiques The Quebec Nordiques (french: Nordiques de Québec, pronounced in Quebec French, in Canadian English; translated "Quebec City Northmen" or "Northerners") were a professional ice hockey team based in Quebec City. The Nordiques played in the ...

and then the

Colorado Avalanche The Colorado Avalanche (colloquially known as the Avs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Denver. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (N ...

Awards and honours

*WCHA Player of the Week (Recognized for games of November 4–6, 2016) *2016 WCHA Player of the Year *WCHA Offensive Player of the Month, January 2017 *WCHA Defensive Player of the Week (Week of February 14, 2017) *2016-17 AHCA-CCM Women's University Division I All-American *2017

winner

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Sources
EliteProspectsUniversity of WisconsinFond du Lac Bears

References

External links

*
Wisconsin bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Desbiens, Ann-Renee 1994 births Living people French Quebecers Canadian women's ice hockey goaltenders Ice hockey people from Quebec Ice hockey players at the 2018 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2022 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2022 Winter Olympics Olympic ice hockey players for Canada Olympic gold medalists for Canada Olympic silver medalists for Canada Olympic medalists in ice hockey Patty Kazmaier Award winners Wisconsin Badgers women's ice hockey players Professional Women's Hockey Players Association players People from La Malbaie