Heise Standards: Taylor Heise Continues Meteoric Rise in Women's Hockey
Taylor Heise hadn’t dealt with much adversity before being cut by Team USA’s women’s national team in 2021. It propelled her to new heights and to the world stage.
The exit meeting is forever seared in Taylor Heise’s memory.
Heise had just finished her first United States women’s selection camp in Blaine, Minn. A three-time gold medallist and captain at the under-18 level, Heise seemed a logical candidate to make the jump to the senior team. Besides, she had never been cut from a USA Hockey team since she received her first invite at 15.
Yet something hadn’t clicked the way it usually does for the confident forward. She went in with a bit of nervousness and thought, “I don’t I feel like I can do it, but I’m not sure.” When she called home to give her parents daily updates, she would tell them as much.
But now she sat with coach Joel Johnson and GM Katie Million, learning she would not even make the cut for the seven-month residency to train for the 2021 Women’s World Championship and 2022 Olympics.
“I remember every single word that came out of coach’s mouth, out of our GM’s mouth – everything – because I remember sitting there and still thinking, ‘I’m not sure,’ ” Heise said. “But it was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me.”
The 90-minute drive to her hometown of Lake City, Minn., included plenty of reflection. Heise reminded herself she would still be around her best friends and teammates. She’d have time to see her family. And she still had a title to win at Minnesota.
“I took a few days off and realized, ‘I can do this,’ ” Heise said. Soon after, she posted a motivational message to social media: “Be comfortable with waiting a little longer for the things you deserve.”
She wouldn’t have to wait long. In the span of a year, she would experience a meteoric rise onto the world stage. She would capture the NCAA scoring title – with 29 goals and 66 points in 39 games as a senior with the Golden Gophers – and she would win the Patty Kazmaier Award as the top collegiate player in the United States.
Then, in August, she made her Team USA senior team debut at the 2022 IIHF Women’s World Championship in Denmark. Heise’s seven goals and 18 points in seven games were good for the tournament lead, and they powered her to take home tournament MVP honors. That gave her the distinction of being the only player to win the award at both the junior and senior women’s World Championships.
“I think I’ve always had a switch,” Heise said. “I think I choose to turn it on when people doubt me.”
No other woman can stake claim to having been formally recognized as the best in her state or province, at the national level and on the international stage. Not three-time Olympic gold-medallist Marie-Philip Poulin or all-time IIHF leading scorer Hilary Knight.
Heise can. And she is only 23.
Obsessively driven and in constant motion, Heise describes herself as a “social being” with a dominant, “type-A” personality. She is open to “letting things happen,” but “would rather control” situations. As the oldest of three siblings – each with a competitive edge – Heise channels that energy to uplift others around her.
“When you are around her, you want to be the best you can be, on or off the ice,” said Gophers teammate Abigail Boreen. “She is a very driven, outgoing, positive, uplifting person. She’s definitely a motivator. She’s a kind person. She doesn’t look to degrade you when you make a mistake. She’s looking to make you better as she’s trying to make herself better.”
In many ways, Heise is hockey’s version of Ted Lasso, the fictional American football-turned-soccer coach in the eponymous streaming sports-comedy series.
Heise is a fish-out-of-water among her basketball-loving family from Wisconsin. Small-town, heartland values largely shape her team-centric motivations. She thrives in situations where she can be a role model or mentor to others.
Oh, and, like Lasso, who makes homemade shortbread for others as a sign of affection, Heise is an avid baker. When asked what her prized recipe is, she can’t settle on one, instead rattling off a list. She also identifies each teammate for whom a treat is baked.
“For everyone’s birthday, they get to pick one recipe,” Heise said. “I always know what it is – because I know everyone’s favorite – but I always make sure to ask. Gracie (Ostertag) likes raspberry lemon bundt cake. So does ‘C’ (Crystalyn Hengler). Katie (Skaja) likes cheesecake. (Emily) Oden likes a little more decadent cheesecake. ‘Bobo’ (Boreen) likes, honestly, whatever you give her.”
But Heise says either a tray of cinnamon rolls from scratch or a plate piled high with monkey bread left on the kitchen island is the go-to recipe because they tend to bring everyone together.
“I love being able to sit around an island and eat with my best friends,” she adds. “It just feels more like you’re living.”
That the 5-foot-10 Heise plays hockey is a twist, given her family ties to basketball. Her mom, Amy, and dad, Tony, played the sport at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Middle sibling Nathan is entering his junior season at the University of Northern Iowa. Youngest brother Ryan is a freshman at Upper Iowa University. Her cousins are also hoopsters.
As fate would have it, the Minnesota Wild awarded a grant to develop a youth-hockey program in Lake City, a rural community of about 5,000 people. A flyer advertising the opportunity at an outdoor rink would end up in the 7-year-old Heise’s backpack at school. She kept asking her parents if she could try hockey. They shrugged and figured, why not?
Learning to play hockey in negative temperatures didn’t faze her. Heise fell in love with the sport to the point she would cross off dates on the calendar to count down to her next practice or game.
By the time she was 12, her desire for growth as a player had exceeded what Lake City could provide. She began playing in Red Wing, the closest town with a high school girls’ team. Heise’s grandfather handled driving duties to-and-from school and practice, roughly a 30-minute commute, beginning in seventh grade and going right through to her senior year.
Heise says the experience humbled her. From the sacrifice of her family and fellow small-town teammates, she learned that “people matter, relationships matter.
“If I’m just playing the game for myself, that’s selfish at the end of the day,” Heise said. “There’s so many other people I can help (inspire) who are growing up in a small town like Lake City. Going to Red Wing, I think, also proved to me that adversity moves you through life.”
Heise was renowned for her elite speed and offensive skills in Red Wing. During her senior season, she racked up a ludicrous 74 goals and 104 points in 29 games and won the Ms. Hockey award as Minnesota’s top high-school player in 2018. The Team USA captain would also wrap her career at the U-18 Women’s World Championship with the MVP award, best-forward honors and her third consecutive gold medal.
“When you are around her, you want to be the best you can be, on or off the ice,” Abigail Boreen on Taylor Heise
When it came time to commit to a college program, familiarity with then-Minnesota assistant and Team USA U-18 coach Johnson helped sway her decision. Yet a simple question her mom asked – “If you got hurt, would you still want to be there?” – sealed it.
“I love this university,” Heise said of Minnesota. “I love what it brings to my life and the people that it brought me. I am very grateful.” Among those many individuals are Skaja and Boreen, Heise’s roommates since sophomore year. Heise also centers the wingers. Their line became known as ‘the ducklings’ last season. “(Heise) thinks she is the mama duck,” Skaja joked.
Skaja and Boreen were also among the first to cross paths with Heise after she was cut from Team USA. Skaja remembers Heise told them she’d done “everything she could” to impress.
As the three returned to the ice during the summer, Heise exuded another level of confidence not before seen.
“Her mindset switched,” Boreen said. ”Of course, she was mad for a little bit. But she brought – I wouldn’t say anger – a driven mentality.”
Newly hired Gophers assistant coach Natalie Darwitz stoked Heise’s fire as well. The three-time U.S. Olympian encouraged Heise to dominate the game every time she hit the ice.
Heise put the advice into action.
Heise posted a respectable point-per-game average through 95 games during her first three seasons at Minnesota. In her senior season alone, that mark jumped to 1.7 points per game behind 20 multi-point efforts, including a stretch of eight straight. She also made phenomenal use of her lightning-quick shot, recording 235 of them during the season, the second-highest total in team history.
“Her game took off in terms of seeing plays on the ice and being more deceptive,” said Zumwinkle, who kept in touch with Heise from afar while participating in Olympic training. “She used her physique, her body more. She was super dominant.”
Heise’s chemistry with Skaja and Boreen resulted in the wingers joining her in the career-high-point-total club, posting career-highs of 47 and 59 points, respectively. Before that, neither Skaja nor Boreen had topped 15 points in a season.
“She has helped me have confidence in myself as well,” Skaja said. “She tries new things and is not afraid to make a mistake. So we all feel OK to make a mistake.”
Skaja said she often tells Heise getting cut was the best thing that could have happened to her, adding, “I don’t think she would have been the player she is now.”
But as Heise surged in college, she was frequently reminded of June. Team USA still included her on its list of Olympic alternates, which required her to take frequent COVID tests just in case she became a last-minute call-up.
Had she tested positive at any point, Heise would have lost more than just the chance to be an Olympian; she could potentially compromise several Minnesota teammates with whom she shared a home. The highly ranked squad stood to lose, at a minimum, their first line and other veterans to quarantine. And that would likely derail the team’s chances of qualifying for the Frozen Four.
Heise, who felt an obligation to both teams, kept testing, but she held herself to the highest standard of caution to avoid potential exposure.
“Even that, she didn’t let it affect her,” Skaja said. “She was focused on the right here, right now. “
Minnesota finished the season 29-9-1 and made the NCAA tournament but fell 2-1 in the quarterfinals to Minnesota-Duluth.
“I had a great year,” Heise said. “All my friends and teammates – I don’t think they truly understand how grateful I am for them. Game by game, things consistently got better. I wasn’t frustrated when things got bad because I knew that I could get out of them, and I had teammates to help me with that.”
In early August 2022, Heise earned an invite to the National Women’s Festival, USA Hockey’s selection camp for upcoming national-team events. This time, she made the cut to join the Americans at the 2022 Women’s World Championship. Heise earned a spot on the second line centering veterans Amanda Kessel and Alex Carpenter.
“(Heise) came in with a fresh slate,” said Zumwinkle, who also skated for Team USA in Denmark. “She saw it as a new experience. She brings a joy and a presence around the game that is unique to see. Most people play their best when they’re having joy and fun. To see what she did at the World Championship was amazing.”
Heise’s five assists in her debut – a 10-0 win by the U.S. over Japan – tied the tournament record. She contributed three goals and an assist in the Americans’ 12-1 quarterfinals win over Hungary, and she recorded another five-point effort (two goals, three assists) in a 10-1 triumph over Czechia in the semifinals.
The U.S., however, ultimately fell to Canada in the gold-medal game by a score of 2-1. Her sweep of awards – MVP, best forward and selection to the all-star team – offered a silver lining to a silver medal.
At an event that saw Knight (89 points) break Team Canada legend Haley Wickenheiser’s (87) all-time Women’s World Championship points record, Heise began her own chase. The forward’s 18 points are the second-highest single-tournament total since Cindy Curley recorded 23 for the Americans in 1990.
Heise was exceptional in the faceoff circle, winning 72 of 101 draws in seven games. She also finished plus-16 – having been on ice for just two goals against – second to only Kessel’s plus-17 rating.
“I think Taylor has pretty much solidified her spot after that performance at the World Championship in August,” said Minnesota State coach John Harrington, who also assists Team USA in evaluating players. “She’s the whole package. I think she’s going to have an outstanding international career.”
With only months left in her collegiate career, however, Heise focused on winning a national championship.
“I’m going to have another chance (at the Olympics),” she said in October. “I’ll work the rest of my life to make it happen. But a national title here would mean the world to me. It means what we’ve been doing – even for the coaching staff – it proves that we’ve been doing things right. Things just haven’t worked out our way.”
The Gophers are reminded of that every day at the rink. One side of the hallway between the locker room and the ice at Ridder Arena is covered with a mural of past players and milestone moments from the women’s team’s 26-year history. There is a section honoring Minnesota’s Patty Kazmaier winners, with Heise’s panel nested between former recipients Krissy Wendell (2005) and Kessel (2013).
On the other side are eight large panels, one for each of Minnesota’s seven national titles, plus one blank panel with a greyed-out ‘M’ logo.
Heise finds it strange to see herself on any murals – “I’ll be like, ‘whoa.’ ” – but it bothers her to be absent from the images on the other side of the hallway. “We have a joke when we go on the ice and they announce ‘…and your seven-time national champions,’ ” Skaja said. “We’ve been hearing that for five years. We’re ready to be done with that.”
While Heise still did her part last season, having Zumwinkle and sophomore Abby Murphy back – after an Olympic redshirt year – helped spread the offensive wealth across the Gophers lineup. Heise’s output dropped slightly to a measly 1.38 points per game through the first half of the season, but it was a mark still good enough to rank among the top 15 in the NCAA.
“You can see her confidence continuing to grow,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said during the season. “She hasn’t scored as much as maybe she wants to yet, but she is still making a huge impact on the ice. We know she’s going to have another fantastic year. She’s a pretty darn special player.”
As one of five graduate-student captains that season, Heise recognizes the importance of mentoring her younger teammates. A few call her mom. “I feel like that’s your job when you’re older,” Heise said.
Her play in 2022-23 reflected more of an emphasis in seeing her teammates get a share of the spotlight. But she also knows when to flip the switch. When then-No. 2 Minnesota found itself trailing for the first time all season, 2-1 to No. 1 Ohio State, Heise put her game into another gear with seconds left in the middle frame. On the ensuing shift following the Buckeye’s go-ahead goal, Heise took the draw, dumped it and gave chase with hard strides to retrieve it.
The Gophers wouldn’t score there, but just 18 seconds into the third, Heise again took the situation into her own hands. She charged up the left side and tied the game with a backhand shot off defender Sophie Jacques. Minnesota would add two more in the period to topple the defending national champions on the road and remain undefeated.
In a series against No. 5 Minnesota Duluth the following weekend, Heise found that extra gear again, delivering an overtime-winner 15 seconds into the extra period. She jumped into the glass in celebration before turning with open arms to the swarm of teammates coming at her from the bench.
Even in Minnesota’s two regulation losses – to St. Cloud State and Wisconsin, both by 4-1 tallies – Heise produced her teams’ lone goals in each.
“I think I’ve always had a switch. I think I choose to turn it on when people doubt me.” - Taylor Heise
By season’s end, the Heise finished as the NCAA’s lone 30-goal scorer, and her point per game average jumped to 1.72, second only to Colgate’s Danielle Serdachny’s 1.78.
The Gophers, meanwhile, would defeat Wisconsin and Ohio State en route to their first WCHA Final Faceoff title since 2018. Heise, who earned WHCA Forward of the Year Honors, picked up three assists in the games.
The quest for a national title, however, came up short in the Frozen Four. Despite Heise’s two-point effort — a goal to open the contest, then setting up Madeline Wethington with 71 seconds remaining to force overtime — the Gophers fell 3-2 to the Badgers.
The sting of leaving Minnesota empty-handed did not last long. The forward rejoined Team USA for the 2023 Women’s World Championship, finishing tied for third among scorers with 12 points (one goal, 11 assists).
In Brampton, Heise showed her calmness under pressure yet again, recording two assists in the final 40 seconds of the Americans’ eventual 4-3 shootout loss to Canada during round-robin play. In the gold-medal game against the Canadians, she set up Knight’s go-ahead tally with 3:10 to play. The U.S. would tack on two more goals before the horn, assuring Heise of her first gold at the senior level.
Beyond college, Heise plans to pursue a professional playing career. She would love the opportunity to keep skating with her current teammates at the pro level, and she plans to discuss the idea as they sort out their futures. Before the PWHL emerged as the predominant women’s league in North America, Heise said she was keeping her options open.
“We never know if the two leagues are going to (merge) into one or somehow there are going to be three. We can’t even handle two half the time,” Heise joked at the time. “But whoever gives me the leverage to compete and be at my best, that is where I am going to be.”
With the professional situation having sorted itself out, Heise now stands to make more history as the potential first pick in the 2023 PWHL draft. The Minnesota franchise holds the top selection, and Darwitz is now at the helm of the yet-to-be-named team. The former Team USA captain did not put the speculation to rest during a recent press conference but hinted her target is in sight. "We do have a really good idea who our first-round draft pick will be, and we're excited about that," Darwitz said. "Hopefully (the player is) excited about it as well."
When she eventually decides to hang up her skates, Heise plans to continue working in sports. She graduated with a Bachelor of Kinesiology degree and is working toward a master’s in sports management.
“I want to make a living out of what I love best, and that’s the sport of hockey,” Heise said – noting she’s also open to working in basketball. “I feel like I’ve made some really good connections. Wherever that leads me, I’m just going to trust in the fact that something is going to catch my eye and I’m going to like it.”
And, of course, the 2026 Winter Olympics are already circled on her calendar. Heise would love nothing more to have her grandfather, who drove her to Red Wing and is now in his mid-70s, to see her play in Milan.
“He always told me he’s going live until I play in the Olympics,” she said. “He’s going to go to Italy. He’s always been supportive of me. My whole family has. I think that’s why I have such high aspirations.
“The support is overwhelming.”
The original version of Erin Brown's feature on Taylor Heise appeared in the 2023 World Juniors edition of The Hockey News magazine. Get a free issue when subscribing to The Hockey News for a year at THN.com/free.