Caroline Harvey missed six weeks with a knee injury. Last night see returned to USA's senior national team and says she's "100% back."
Caroline Harvey missed six weeks with a knee injury. Last night see returned to USA's senior national team and says she's "100% back."
Few would have known Caroline Harvey has been sidelined with a knee injury that threatened her season when she stepped on the ice at game three of the Rivalry Series.
Harvey was originally injured October 19, suffering a knee injury that was originally feared to be a ligament tear requiring surgery. That prognosis proved wrong, and Harvey was able to rehab the injury over the next six weeks, missing seven games before making her NCAA return on December 2.
Back with the national team for the first time after missing November's Rivalry Series games, Harvey's presence was immediately felt and she felt 100% back to normal as well.
"I felt good, It took a bit getting used to the pace again," she said. "I felt more confident as the game progressed, but I'm 100% back, it's in my rearview now. I'm definitely passed that."
It's good news for Team USA as Harvey was the top scorer at the 2023 World Championships leading USA to gold, and was named USA Hockey's Player of the Year.
In Thursday's Rivalry Series game, a 3-2 win over Canada, Harvey felt her team started slow, but fed off the energy from the more than 7500 fans in Kitchener to fight back.
"We got off to a little bit of a rough start, we expected Canada to come out hard," said Harvey. "We collectively as a team got back together, we regrouped after the first, started to take it to them and it showed throughout the game and we were able to capitalize at the end and take away the win."
"It was pretty loud out there, pretty electric, it was good to get out there, honestly it fires us up sometimes when we have the crowd against us."
Game four of the Rivalry Series takes place Saturday in Sarnia, Ontario. Puck drop is 5pm.