HILARY KNIGHT
and if you didn't know it was a women's game, you might think it was an NHL game. "With just the velocity and the accuracy of her shot, she does some things
W
real special that some of the other kids aren't able to do. One of those things is obviously scoring because of her shot.''
As much as Knight dislikes focusing on some
of her individual achievements — she doesn't keep track of her career point total ("I have no idea what it is") — she does like scoring goals. "Finding the back of the net is a hard thing to
do and hopefully I can do it more,'' said Knight, a senior from Sun Valley, Idaho. "It's always fun to celebrate (goals).'' So what does it feel like to score on a booming slap shot? "It feels great,'' Knight said. "Especially when
it zips right past the goaltender and the goalten- der has no idea where the puck is. I remember when I wasn't able to lift the puck in the eighth grade.'' That is a distant memory. Today, she's one of the elite goal-scorers in women's hockey. "When you watch us play,'' Johnson said,
"Hilary is the first person you recognize because of her size and strength and skating and shoot- ing. It's like, 'Wow, she's pretty phenomenal.''' Knight has moved past Meghan Duggan as
the UW's career scoring leader with 239 points. With 135 goals, she has also topped Mark John- son, who scored 125 during his playing days at Wisconsin. It wasn't until Knight's dad sent an email congratulating her on the milestone that she realized what she had accomplished. Recalled
18 » VARSITY DECEMBER 15, 2011
Knight, "I said, 'What are you talking about?' and he explained.''
The numbers still don't compute. "I really can't base my goals off of points,'' she said, "because there are other variables.''
"When you watch us play, Hilary is the first person you recognize because of her size and strength and skating and shooting. It's like, 'Wow, she's pretty phenomenal.'"
– Mark Johnson
"Goals" being a synonym for "objectives" in this case. What type of statistic would get her attention? "If someone pulled me aside,'' she conceded,
"and said, 'You took this many shots and this is how many goals you scored, maybe you should become a little more accurate.''' Nobody is likely to have that conversation with Knight anytime soon in North America. "When you start talking about the Canadians
isconsin women's hockey coach Mark Johnson committed a Hilary Knight snapshot to memory.
The snapshot? A Hilary Knight slap shot. What else? "In last Saturday's game at Bemidji,'' he said, "she comes down and takes a slap shot from just outside of the circle
