Ann-Renée Desbiens

Ann-Renée Desbiens arrived at the University of Wisconsin and left with numbers that have not been matched anywhere in college hockey, by any player in any era. Over four NCAA seasons, the goaltender from Clermont, Québec compiled 99 wins, a 0.89 goals-against average, a .955 save percentage, and 56 career shutouts — a record that stands across men's and women's NCAA hockey. In her junior season, 2015–16, she broke the NCAA single-season shutout record with 21, earning a top-three Patty Kazmaier Award nomination in the process. Her senior year brought the award itself: Desbiens led the country that season with 17 shutouts, 29 wins, a 0.71 goals-against average, and a .963 save percentage, claiming the 2017 Patty Kazmaier Award as the top player in women's college hockey.

From Wisconsin, Desbiens joined Team Canada and took her place at two Winter Olympics. At the 2018 Games she earned a silver medal. Four years later in Beijing, she made five starts, including the gold medal game against the United States, where she stopped 38 of 40 shots. During those 2022 Olympics she also set a Canadian Olympic record — men's or women's — with 51 saves in a single game. The gold medal she earned in Beijing was accompanied by multiple World Championship appearances: Desbiens has competed at five IIHF Women's World Championships (2015, 2021, 2022, 2023), collecting three gold medals and two silver medals along the way, giving her six World Championship medals in total.

During the years between the two Olympics, Desbiens played in the PWHPA from 2019 to 2023, winning the Secret Cup in both 2021 and 2023. When the PWHL launched, she joined the Montréal Victoire, wearing number 35. In her most recent regular season, Desbiens posted a .955 save percentage and a 1.11 goals-against average, setting PWHL records in both categories, while tying the league record with 19 wins alongside Boston's Aerin Frankel. She also recorded seven shutouts that season, one behind Frankel's new league record. Her 41 career wins represent another PWHL record.

In the 2025–26 PWHL playoffs, Desbiens backstopped Montréal past the two-time defending champion Minnesota Freeze in the semifinals. After dropping the opening game 5–4 in overtime, she finished the series with a .940 save percentage. Montréal's three wins in that series came by scores of 1–0, 2–1, and 2–1.

InGoal Magazine has covered how she approaches the mental side of those high-stakes moments. Speaking ahead of the 2026 playoffs, Desbiens described the importance of taking mental breaks within a game rather than trying to sustain full concentration from puck drop to final buzzer ^[1]. "Your nervous system takes a beat down if you're always like, go, go, go," she told InGoal. Her reset mechanism is straightforward: every face-off is a fresh trigger. "It's every puck drop. If I let in a goal, it's the next face off," she said. "When the puck is dropped, it's like 'okay, it's work time,' but then it's okay to be enjoying yourself in between." ^[1]

That piece in ^[1] also captures a remark that speaks to her perspective on the professional game: "For someone that didn't think I was ever going to be able to play professional hockey, I'm going to enjoy every single second."

On the eve of those same playoffs, InGoal published her advice on handling postseason pressure — the full piece is available to InGoal subscribers ^[2]. Desbiens told InGoal how she had worked toward a place where her average game, built on thorough preparation, was enough: "If you've done everything to prepare yourself — your body, your mind — to get to that moment, then you get to just enjoy it." ^[2]

A 2022 InGoal article, also available to subscribers, explored a different but related lesson: how Desbiens learned to practice more effectively as part of her path to Olympic gold — including how she approached the wide-open, goalie-unfriendly drills that once frustrated her ^[3]. She discussed the same theme on the InGoal Radio podcast, and InGoal expanded on it in print ^[3]. Earlier podcast coverage includes a 2021 episode dedicated entirely to Desbiens ^[4] and a 2020 multi-guest episode in which she appeared alongside Brianne McLaughlin and Katie Burt ^[5].

InGoal Magazine has covered Ann-Renée Desbiens in two podcast appearances and three InGoal articles.

Now 32 and wearing number 35 for Montréal, Desbiens is the holder of PWHL, Canadian Olympic, and NCAA records that span decades of women's hockey history.