USA Hockey Magazine

"I want them all to be in con- trol," said McNaughton, a senior at the University of Wisconsin where she just won back-to- back national championships. Huge, impressive saves get fans and teammates pumped u p, b u t Mc N a u g h t o n wa n t s h e r save s t o l o o k r u n o f t h e m i l l . S h e g r e w u p w a t c h i n g Marc-Andre Fleury, but said that while his acrobatic style worked for him, she simply isn't built like that. "Obviously, the game is far from perfect for everybody. You might make a great save, or you might give up a goal and you might end up on SportsCenter. But when I see good saves, I think they 're cool, but I am also thinking about how I could have made it a little simpler for myself and not had to make it more work than it had to be," she said. When it comes to being in the net, a routine-looking save might not be exciting to everyone watch- i n g , b u t i t 's a c u l m i n a t i o n f o r McNaughton of all the work she put in before that exact moment. That work includes on- and off- ice training, scouting and video training. It also means that in the moments before the shot, she saw the play enter her zone and she was able to correctly analyze what was coming at her and put herself in the right position to make a save that looked unremarkable. Making It Look Easy "I've always kind of been chill and kind of calm. My parents espe- cially would definitely classify me as an old soul who just enjoys the journey and just sees the big- ger picture and everything and is always trying to plan ahead and make things as simple as possible for my current self and my future self," said McNaughton. D e s p i t e h e r r e l a t i v e l y p l a c - id demeanor, McNaughton a d m i t s s h e i s i n c r e d i b l y competitive. She said at Wisconsin there's no such thing as a casual game or drill. Trainers have asked her at times to take it easy, but she said if she's on the ice, she's incapable of dialing it back. Ultimately, her composure and desire to be poised in the net is sim- ply the most efficient and effective way to feed her need to win. " T h e r e a r e t i m e s w h e r e y o u need to g et a little chaotic and sprawl out a little bit and show off some athleticism, but you want to give your team as much confi- dence as possible that you're going to be able to come up with a save, no matter what the situation is," she said. "A calm goalie is one that's going to be consistent. And that's some- thing that can be escalated and extrapolated at any level. It's time- less. It never goes out of style." Calm Doesn't Mean Passive I t a l s o h e l p s t h a t a t 6 ' 0 " McNaughton is a big and com- m a n d i n g p r e s e n c e i n t h e n et . She doesn't easily get pulled into after-whistle antics and tries to remove teammates from high-ten- s i o n e n c o u n t e r s. T h a t 's g o o d sportsmanship, but it also serves her purpose of keeping emotions regulated. If she gets too heated in a game, she's probably not going to play well. And that doesn't serve the goal of winning. McNaughton said her size has always been N HER IDEAL WORLD, U.S. Olympic Women's Ice Hockey Team goalie Ava McNaughton hopes you never see her on ESPN's SportsCenter Top 10. She espe - cially doesn't want to be the goalie getting a highlight-reel goal scored on her, but she also hopes she's never highlighted for a crazy save. 4lc0Upv2nXI V I D E O JUNE 2026 // THE GOALIE ISSUE // 19

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