USA Women's Hockey

Jessie Vetter’s résumé as a player is almost as long as a hockey stick.

At the University of Wisconsin, she won three national championships, set an NCAA record for shutouts with 39 and won the Patty Kazmaier Award as the nation’s best player.

The 27-year-old goaltender also has helped Team USA win a silver medal at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and has been a member of five American teams in the International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship tournament, including the current U.S. squad that defeated Finland 3-0 Monday in the semifinals to set up a date vs. Canada Tuesday for the championship.

Against the Finns, Vetter stopped all 11 shots to post her second shutout of the tournament as the U.S. improved to 3-0-1 and set up a rematch with Canada, which took a 3-2 shootout victory in the tournament opener.

A victory tonight in Ottawa would give Vetter and the U.S. a fourth world championship gold medal since 2008.

So, as a player, Vetter is both decorated and dedicated.

Yet once she began coaching others, she discovered she didn’t know quite as much about the game as she thought she did.

“I think when you take a step back when you coach, you get a different perspective,” she said before Team USA headed for Canada. “Personally, I think it helped my game.”

Particularly, she said, when she works with goaltenders. The words that come spilling out of her mouth come back through her ears and ring a bell.

“When I’m teaching them different stuff, in the back of my mind I’m like, ‘OK, I need to do things like that as well,” she said. “So I think it can definitely help you.”

Vetter has coached an Under-19 team and also works as the director of hockey at Athletic Republic, coaching players from 6 years to high school and college age.

The experience has made her realize that teaching leads to better understanding of the subject for the teacher as well as the students.

“I wish I would have known that in college,” she said, laughing. “I would have started a tutor group or something that would have helped me through my academics.”

Though Vetter enjoys coaching, her playing days are far from over.

She remains one of the top goaltenders in women’s hockey — she has stopped 41 of 44 shots in this world championship tournament — and is now one of the veterans on the national team that has proven to be a strong mix of youth and experience. The 23-player roster in Canada for the world championship tournament has players from age 18 to 31. For some players it’s their first taste of hockey on its biggest stage. For players such as Vetter, it’s another chance to be a part of the best of the best.

“I love coming to the rink every practice, just putting the gear on and being with my teammates, and that’s one thing that hasn’t gotten old yet,” she said. “It’s like, ‘Why are you still playing?’ It just hasn’t gotten old. The day that I don’t want to come to the rink, I don’t want to suit up, will the time for me to retire and hang it up.”

The recent selection camp at Lake Placid, N.Y., before the tournament in Canada, was a preview of the talent that is working toward the Winter Games in Sochi in February. Coach Katey Stone had to pare the 28 invited players to 23 — a tough process — but Vetter likes what she sees.

Stone, who also will coach the U.S. team in Sochi, has big-time scorers, depth and players versatile enough to step into almost any situation.

The key, says Vetter, is that even during the selection camp, when it was a given that some players would be left behind, it was a team-first atmosphere. It’s something that starts with Stone and the coaching staff, she says.

“I think that’s one thing we definitely stress is team first and doing anything for the team and just owning the role, whatever that may be,” she said. “If you’re power play or penalty kill, if you’re not the goalie … just doing the best we can. We all accept that. If it’s your day, you’re going to step up and be ready. If not, you’re going to be there cheering your team on and supporting them and hope for the best.”

Because of what she’s seen — and she loves meeting the new young players invited to every national camp — she’s excited by their prospects in Sochi. A gold medal tonight will give them that much more confidence.

In Sochi they’ll have to get by defending Olympic gold medalists Canada, of course, and anything can happen in an international tournament with strong teams such as Russia and Finland. But the youth that’s pumped into the U.S. program each year helps keep her pumped up.

On the ice, she says the blend is seamless.

Off the ice, it’s a different story.

“When it comes to music and movies and different stuff like that, there might be a little bit of a gap,” she said, laughing. “But when it comes to hockey, it’s the same score for all of us all around and we do a job of playing together. But it is fun to harass the young ones every once in a while when they don’t know certain movies or we don’t know song that they know, but we have a good time with it.”

And as long as Vetter’s having a good time, she’s good to go.

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.