Who Is That Kiwi Goaltender?

If I asked you who the top goatender playing in the New Zealand Ice Hockey League currently is, I'd give you a pass because I doubt many people would know. Catching NZIHL games would be something only die-hard hockey fans would do unless you knew someone playing in that league, but my goal today is to introduce you to someone awesome who may interest you in catching a game or two on YouTube. As you know, goalies sometimes have the hardest job in hockey when it comes to helping their teams win, but the current starter for the Botany Storm has her team in first-place in the NZIHL while sporting some of the best statistical numbers in the league! And yes, I said "HER".

The goaltender pictured above is Grace Harrison, and she's the starting netminder for the first-place Botany Swarm in the NZIHL. Harrison's having a solid campaign with an 8-5-1 record, a 3.25 GAA, and an .870 save percentage as she's helped Botany to a 9-5-1 record and 28 points, just ahead of the SkyCity Stampede. And if that doesn't impress you enough, here's the kicker: the other goaltender with a 1-0-0 record is Alexa Gibson, a 23 year-old, former University of Ottawa goaltender! Putting all that together means the Storm are leading the NZIHL with women owning all their wins this season!

I'll asterisk the paragraph above by saying that Gibson isn't on the Swarm's everyday roster as she's actually one-half of the goaltending tandem for the NZWIHL's Auckland Steel, but she was the goaltender of record in the 10-4 victory over the Canterbury Red Devils on May 18 in her NZIHL debut! What may have made that night better for Gibson is that she also recorded an assist! How about that debut in men's professional hockey - 32 saves on 35 shots in 58:44 of ice time, her first professional men's hockey win, and one assist? Frame that gamesheet, Alexa, because that is awesome!

In Harrison's case, she has been proving herself since she was a youngster playing with the Auckland Juniors alongside her older brother. In an opportunity that few New Zealanders get, she headed to Canada to play with the Toronto Leaside Wildcats in the Ontario Provincial Women's League in 2013-14 when she was 16 through a hockey program organized between the Toronto Leaside Girls Hockey Association and New Zealand Ice Hockey Federation.

"It definitely was pretty farfetched," Harrison told The Hockey News' Jared Clinton in 2021. "But it was one of those things where I had really supportive parents who agreed that hindsight is not a fun way to live, so just kind of roll with it."

Her six weeks of time with Leaside was good enough to convince the Ontario Hockey Academy to recruit her as a 17 year-old, and her time in the Canadian High School League following a solid showing at the IIHF Women's World Championship Division-IIA tournament was enough for St. Lawrence University to want to see more as they asked her to join the team for 2015-16 which caught Harrison by surprise.

"I thought, 'Maybe I’m not good enough for (Div. I),'" she told Clinton about joining St. Lawrence. "'I'll go play in the CIS and get some rink time.'"

The faith shown by the Saints' coaching staff paid off in spades as Harrison became one of the top netminders in the NCAA over her four seasons there. In 96 NCAA games, Harrison went 49-26-18 with a sparkling 1.92 GAA, a .918 save percentage, and 16 shutouts. While she couldn't backstop St. Lawrence to a national championship, it was pretty easy to see the Auckland-born Harrison was one of the best players - male or female - to come out of New Zealand. Not bad for a kid who didn't think she was good enough to play there!

One person who saw more than anyone else did was Botany Swarm GM Travis Crickard. Crickard, a former goaltender who once played alongside Genevieve Lacasse, saw the same talent, drive, and dedication that he saw with Lacasse, and he recognized that Harrison would likely be the goaltender of the present and future of New Zealand hockey following her time at St. Lawrence.

"I'm watching her and thinking about where she fits in the spectrum of other goaltenders in New Zealand, and I kind of had the same feeling," Crickard said to Clinton about Harrison. "She looks just as good or better than anyone else here. She moves better, she's technically better and, for one thing, she's significantly younger than some of the goalies in the league."

With the CWHL folding in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic shutting things down for a couple of years, Harrison nearly walked away from the sport. She had her degree in statistics so she could have grabbed a job and settled into that life, but it was her current Swarm teammates who talked the netminder into coming back to the game in 2021. The only question was where and for whom would she play.

In 2021, she was the second woman to suit up in the NZIHL that season with Canterbury Red Devils goalie Lilly Forbes. Forbes was playing for the NZWIHL's Canterbury Inferno when the Red Devils called her up to stop pucks for them in 2019-20, and Forbes was named as a full-time member of the squad in 2020-21. However, it appears she retired following her appearance for New Zealand at the 2023 IIHF Women's World Championship D2B tournament, leaving Harrison as the lone woman in the NZIHL. Forbes looked like she could be part of New Zealnd hockey's future as she too was part of the Toronto Leaside-New Zealand Ice Hockey Federation partnership!

Harrison, on her own accord, has grabbed the reins of the Swarm and never looked back. In 2019-20, she went 0-3-0 as she got her feet wet in professional men's hockey, improved to 5-3-0 in 2020-21, and she hasn't posted a losing record in any season since her debut. She became the first woman to play in the NZIHL final on September 2, 2023, and she has the Auckland Storm flying high this season. Nothing is guaranteed when it comes to Auckland finishing atop the standings or winning a championship, but Grace Harrison is doing her part to make those a reality. And from what she told The Hockey News, it sounds like she has the right attitude when it comes to all her success on the ice!

"I quite like to roll with what just comes up," she said. "That's worked out really well for me so far. St. Lawrence happened really last minute, going to Canada happened last minute. Roll with the punches.... Hockey has done some incredible things for me, so we'll see what comes next."

I'm hoping Grace Harrison wins that NZIHL championship this season, and can help New Zealand get back to the IIHF Women's World D2A tournament this season. New Zealand will be in the D2B tournament in Hong Kong from March 30-April 5, 2026, and they'll face the likes of Mexico, Ukraine, Belgium, Hong Kong, and Lithuania in their efforts to move up the IIHF tournament board. If they do, I expect Grace Harrison to be a big part of the reason why they get promoted!

Botany has a pair of games this upcoming weekend as they'll battle the SkyCity Stampede on Saturday and Sunday in what could determine which team finishes atop the NZIHL standings. After a two week break, the semifinal series in the 1-vs-4 and 2-vs-3 series begin on August 2, and the NZIHL Championship will begin play on Friday, August 15 in a three-games-in-three-days final. My hope is that Grace Harrison is playing in that final series, and we get to see her win an NZIHL championship trophy to add to her lengthy goaltending résumé!

Before we go, we can tie off a few loose ends as well by saying that Bartek Ewertowski is the backup netminder for the Botany Swarm behind Grace Harrison, and that Alexa Gibson and Auckland secured first-overall in the NZWIHL after the Wakatipu Wild dropped their final game of the season to the Phoenix Thunder. That means that Gibson and Auckland will play Phoenix in the one-game 1-vs-4 semifinal on Saturday, July 26 with the NZWIHL final scheduled for Sunday, July 27 as the Toronto-born Gibson has a good shot at capturing a championship after winning her first NZIHL game!

Isn't international hockey fun? I may have to plan a trip because need to get to games in Australia and New Zealand!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!