BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — Kristen Campbell began impressing members of the Wisconsin women's hockey team long before she put her uniform on for the first time.
Campbell showed up to train with her new teammates in Madison last summer and the mild-mannered goaltender instantly gave off a vibe that she would not be outworked by anyone.
"The most motivated person I've ever met," senior winger and co-captain Baylee Wellhausen said.
UW strength and conditioning coach Jim Snider, who tutors NHL players and Olympians alike, noted early on that Campbell was near the top of his list of the most driven.
"Mentally very dialed in," he said.
First impressions out of the way, Campbell embarked on a series of random acts of generosity and selflessness for her teammates, the kind you see from someone versed in the art of making delicious meals and desserts.
Campbell has made a birthday cake for freshman defenseman Natalie Buchbinder, a sweet potato chicken curry dinner for senior winger and co-captain Claudia Kepler and gluten-free protein pancakes for freshman winger Brette Pettet.
"Everything's from scratch and everything's from her (cook) book," Pettet said.
"She's incredibly thoughtful and generous," Kepler said of Campbell. "Every person on our team appreciates it. We are very, very happy that she's here and couldn't imagine this year without her."
If there's a dominant feel-good story about the Badgers and their latest run to the NCAA Frozen Four — a program-record five straight appearances and 11 overall dating back to 2006 — it is Campbell and her emergence as the latest goaltending phenomenon at UW.
She spent two years as a backup at North Dakota only to be unceremoniously cut loose with the rest of the roster when the Western Collegiate Hockey Association school stunningly dropped the sport following the 2016-17 season.
Campbell, from Brandon, Manitoba, attracted a good deal of attention as a transfer, but she opted for four-time NCAA champion Wisconsin in part because of the vibe she felt from afar.
Campbell remembers watching the Badgers during games in Madison and Grand Forks, N.D., and being envious of their easy camaraderie.
"I was kind of jealous of you guys," Campbell once told Wellhausen. "You always seemed to have so much fun together."
So when UW assistant coach Jackie Crum reached out on behalf of Coach Mark Johnson — Crum coached Campbell at a Team Canada under-18 event and initially tried to recruit her to Madison — Campbell embraced the opportunity to join a long line of elite puck-stoppers at Wisconsin.
"Honestly, everyone on this team is just amazing," she said. "They all just welcomed me into this program and made me feel so comfortable here. I feel everyone is super close and we have such good chemistry."
Campbell has fused her unique work ethic with that uncommon sense of belonging and helped produce one of the most unexpected seasons in UW history.
The Badgers (31-4-2 overall) face Colgate (33-5-1) in the NCAA semifinals Friday at 7 p.m. at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. The winner will play either defending national champion Clarkson or Ohio State in the title game on Sunday.
Campbell ranks among the top two nationally in winning percentage (31-4-2, .865), save ratio (94.2 percent), goals against average (1.13 per game) and shutouts (12). She was voted Goaltender of the Year in the WCHA and named a top-10 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award as the nation's top player.
Campbell is one of the main reasons Wisconsin has prospered despite losing two underclassmen to Olympic squads — center Emily Clark and winger Annie Pankowski would have been seniors — and Patty Kazmaier-winning goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens to graduation.
Funny how things work out.
Janet Campbell still has the text message she received from her only daughter on the day their worlds changed forever.
It was dated March 29, 2017 and the contents were devastating. Kristen informed her mother that North Dakota was dropping women's hockey, as well as men's and women's swimming and diving, in a cost-cutting move.
"It blew her off the world," Janet said of her daughter.
Kristen said the official announcement was made while the team was practicing, which gave way to a volatile dressing room when it was over.
"Looking back on it now, it was not good," Kristen said. "You had all different emotions like anger, confusion, frustration. There was a lot going on."
After redshirting as a freshman and serving as a backup the following season — paying her dues — Campbell had her heart set on becoming the starter. She had set program fitness records in part because she trained with twin sisters Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando, acclaimed North Dakota alums who recently starred for Team USA in its gold-medal-winning performance at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
But Campbell's hopes went up in a plume of financial bureaucracy.
"I was angry and confused just because it was the first we'd ever heard of it," Kristen said. "It was definitely a very difficult time."
A month later, Janet and Brent Campbell drove their daughter to Madison, a 13-hour ride one way from Brandon, to meet with Johnson and get a lay of the land.
"It was a pretty big scene for her," Brent said of Kristen, "but knowing how the team had done (previously) she decided to go if there was an opening."
Campbell wowed observers during the nine-day summer conditioning session, then took it up a notch when on-ice workouts began.
"Once I saw her on the ice and saw her work habits, it was like, 'Yup, we're good to go,'" Kepler said.
Campbell made five appearances as a redshirt freshman for North Dakota, including a 2-1 loss to the Badgers in which she made 23 saves at LaBahn Arena on Jan. 22, 2017.
"It really didn't register with me when we played against North Dakota because I don't take too much (notice) of the other team," Wellhausen said. "It's a goalie and we have to score on her.
"But when she came here for the first practice this summer, a bunch of us turned to each other and said, 'This is going to be good for us.'"
Campbell got into goaltending because her older brother, Kyle, needed someone to shoot pucks at during his youth hockey days. She fell in love with the role, calling her time on the ice her "happy place."
No surprise then that Campbell is typically the first on the ice for practice and the last off. Johnson said that in the days leading up to a 4-0 victory over Minnesota in the NCAA quarterfinals last Saturday he twice had to coax Campbell off the ice.
"She's got great habits," he said. "She's very detailed. She's very organized."
Wellhausen said Campbell is constantly soliciting teammates to come out and shoot before and after practice.
"She's always wanting to improve, always wanting to learn," Welllhausen said. "That really contributes to her success as a goaltender and a person in general."
Campbell is an avowed foodie and a budding nutritionist. She has a binder of recipes that she's been collecting for years.
"I like to cook and eat healthy," she said. "I like to cook for myself, so why not all my friends, too?"
Campbell laughed at the notion that she prefers to eat healthy — she's entertained the notion of being a registered dietician — but also makes sweet treats for her teammates.
"For birthdays you deserve cake," she explained.
Brent Campbell, a carpenter who has helped build more than 100 homes in the Brandon area, said his daughter got her work ethic from her mother. Janet was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999, forcing her to quit her job in retail.
"Seeing her tackle every single day you would never know there was anything wrong with her at all," Kristen said.
"She always has a smile on her face. Most people that she meets don't even know that she has the disease because she puts on a front that she's 100-percent healthy.
"She's shown me what it takes to fight through pretty much anything."
The last year has been a whirlwind for Campbell. She went from being unceremoniously discarded by one program to being fully embraced by another.
Winning the fifth national championship in UW history would make for a fulfilling conclusion.
"She's just one of the most genuine, kind people that I've ever met," Pettet said of Campbell.
"She has an incredible work ethic and is very driven," Kepler said. "To have that behind you is just an amazing feeling. She has our backs and we have complete confidence in her."
