Karlee Lehner between the pipes for Plymouth State University was named the 2025 MASCAC tournament MVP. (Facebook/Carey Lehner)

By Teena Monteleone

Local talent

Goalie Lehner breaking records in NCAA D-III hockey

Mar 10, 2025 | 4:28 PM

Karlee Lehner fell into the position of goalie by happenstance, but it’s led to adventures and successes she never imagined.

Most recently the Prince Albert product finished with a 1.16 goals against average with the Plymouth State University Panthers in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC), which is affiliated with the NCAA’s Division III. To put that into perspective, the top goals against average stat in the Western Hockey League is currently 2.15.

She set program records for goalie wins and shutouts in a season. On the weekend, she was named Championship Playoff MVP after helping her team win the 2025 MASCAC Women’s Ice Hockey Tournament – the first in conference history.

“You come in and hope you can get to this point, but for it to actually happen – I couldn’t be happier,” Lehner said in a post game interview. “I can’t do it without my team. They work so hard and I just put all my trust in them and they are the reason we got here.”

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The championship game was officially the second-longest game in NCAA Division III women’s hockey history. The back-and-forth battle with Rivier University from New Hampshire, U.S. lasted more than two full regulation games and spanned four hours and 22 minutes in real time. Lehner finished with 33 saves for the Panthers and earned the tournament MVP honours after posting a 0.64 goals against average and a .962 percentage in Plymouth’s two playoff wins.

“She told us, ‘Yeah, my feet were cramped,’” said Lehner’s mom Carey. “That’s a long time to be standing on skates and it was just really exciting to be there…and then to be named MVP was quite an honour.”

Lehner started her hockey journey as a forward within the Prince Albert Minor Hockey League. She was a member of the very first U9 Foxes female team in the city several years ago and part of an Atom team that won a city championship against the boys. It wasn’t until her second year of Peewee when she became a fulltime goaltender.

“It wasn’t something she chose. It was something that she fell into because there were no goalies in her age group, so she just started to do it,” Carey said.

She spent time in the U18 Female ‘AAA’ league with a team in Swift Current where she won Rookie of the Year honours. From there she committed to Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin but later transferred to Plymouth State where she is studying exercise and sport physiology as an undergraduate degree. Her ultimate goal is to be a physiotherapist.

Lehner made 33 saves in the 2-1 quadruple overtime win over Rivier, and her MVP accolade added to her record-breaking season in net. (Facebook/Carey Lehner)

“It’s a long way from home but very few goalies will play in their first one to two or even three years of U Sports [in Canada] because it is a five-year pecking order,” said Carey. “Whereas Karlee went and had that opportunity and as a freshman, she actually played over half the games.”

Winning the state tournament doesn’t mean an automatic berth to the NCAA Division III Women’s Ice Hockey Championship Tournament later this year, but Lehner and her team hold out hope for a possible at-large bid. The tournament bracket will be announced during the NCAA Selection Show, which airs live on NCAA.com on Sunday (March 9) at 8:30 p.m.

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teena.monteleone@pattisonmedia.com