Michaela Hesová: The Same Standard, a Different Perspective

By The Czech Women’s Hockey Report  •  24 September 2026

Washington, D.C.

An Olympic debut, a demanding sophomore year and a growing leadership role have changed how the Dartmouth goaltender carries her ambitions. They have not made those ambitions any smaller.

There is something special about getting to revisit a player’s story often enough that the conversation starts to feel like a tradition. This was the third year in a row that Michaela Hesová and I had the chance to catch up, and our latest summer conversation was as easy and open as any we have had.

When we first spoke for our 2024 NCAA preview, she was preparing to leave Bishop Kearney for Dartmouth, eager for college life and determined to help her new team. Since then, the résumé has grown, a record-setting freshman season, a start against the United States at a home World Championship, and now an Olympic debut. This time, though, the most revealing part of the conversation was how honestly she described the year behind those milestones. “Unfulfilled,” she said when I asked her to sum it up. “That’s the one word I’d use.” By the time we finished talking, she had also told me she had never loved hockey more than she does now. Both things were true. Understanding how they fit together says a great deal about the goaltender returning to Hanover for her junior season.

Last summer, we talked about raising the bar after a freshman year that had established her place in NCAA hockey. Hesová welcomed the expectations (and she still does). But living through an Olympic season taught her that enjoying pressure does not make someone immune to its weight.

“There were definitely times when I felt drained,I got to a point where I thought, ‘I don’t even know if I like hockey anymore.’”

She spoke about continuing to do the work, both her homework and her hockey work, even when the excitement was difficult to find. She also credited her Dartmouth coach with recognizing that she was struggling and continuing to show faith in her, reassuring her that the love of the game could return. Hesová has always struck me as thoughtful, disciplined and demanding of herself. Hearing her acknowledge that the year had sometimes become overwhelming gave those qualities a much more human context.

“There’s a point where pressure becomes too much. But I have never loved hockey more than now.”

The standard, she insists, has not changed. There were meaningful wins last season, but there was also work left undone. Being self-critical is part of how she operates. The challenge has been learning how to use that instinct without letting it take over.

“If we shy away from the standard we’ve set, then we’re not doing what we set out to do.”

Her numbers provide useful context. As a freshman, Hesová played 28 games, set Dartmouth’s single-season saves record with 848 and finished with a .922 save percentage. In 19 sophomore appearances, she posted a .916 save percentage, a 2.69 goals-against average and two shutouts. She made at least 30 saves in 10 of those games, including a 40-save shutout in a scoreless tie with Brown. Those are two seasons of substantial work. But when I asked where she had improved, she went straight to the film.

“I’m more confident in my positioning…In older clips, my hands were loose, I was in and out of the crease too much, and my angles weren’t good. I’ve been working on not over-pushing or over-sliding. I definitely feel like I’m maturing as a goalie.”

As a goalie myself, that is the kind of answer I love hearing. The development she describes is specific. Managing her movement, arriving in better positions and reducing the corrections she has to make. A highlight reel may show the save but her own review is increasingly concerned with what happened before it. And sharing the Dartmouth crease more often also required her to think carefully about how she competed for starts. She credited the coaches’ communication, but was equally clear about her own responsibility once a decision had been made.

“I always want the better goalie to start…If I’m having a worse week, I want them to succeed. I want to compete hard for the net, but be able to transition to being a supporter when I’m not starting.”

If the tandem is not functioning, she believes the tension can spread through the team. Michaela gave us a look into that chemistry when she mentioned how Senior goaltender Eleanor Rogers helps protect that environment with something refreshingly ordinary, making sure the goalies get together for coffee, breakfast and time away from the rink. It is a small example of the culture Hesová believes Dartmouth is building. Dartmouth’s 5–23–3 record shows the gap that remains between the team’s intentions and its results. But she pointed to close games and teammates’ willingness to block shots as evidence of progress that a record alone cannot capture.

“We have the culture and the standards we want to live by. Hopefully it will show up on the stat sheet this upcoming season.”

Her place within that room is changing, too. Hesová told me she had been advised to expect a leadership letter for the coming season, something that initially caught her off guard. During a summer conversation, a coach asked why she had not voted for herself in the team’s leadership vote. She had worried that doing so would be selfish. The response helped her think differently about the role, the question was how she handled situations, communicated and upheld the team’s values, not whether she wanted a title.

“I was shocked initially. But I was super excited.” She recalled sharing that excitement. For all the seriousness of what leadership means, there was still room to be thrilled by the recognition. And she’s not waiting for a letter to begin acting like a leader. She described herself as loud in the locker room and increasingly aware that other players are watching how she responds. The responsibility is to make the standards visible in her behavior, especially when circumstances are difficult.

“People are looking up to you to show the way, the standards and values. High-pressure situations excite me. This is just another example.”

The Olympics gave her plenty of experience with those situations. She made her first Olympic start against Switzerland, a game Czechia lost in a shootout after leading by two in the third period. She later entered in relief against Canada, taking over with the team already trailing 3–0. When we discussed readiness, however, she returned to a broader lesson from the season. For the first time in her career, she said, she had experienced being pulled from games. It happened twice, and it forced her to reconsider what she did with disappointment afterward. She recognized an old habit of dwelling on goals and losses, something she had also felt during her first year at Dartmouth. Now she is working to create mental space outside the game.

“Hockey can be the main thing I love, but it’s not life and death. That perspective is everything to me.”

It brought me back to last summer’s conversation about Klára Peslarová. Hesová had described learning from the veteran how to separate hockey from life and let go of outside noise. A year later, that lesson sounded more personal. Peslarová’s calm still stands out to her, but Hesová has now had to practice that separation through disappointments of her own. Her growing experience makes her an important part of Czechia’s goaltending future. Yet her answers were not about declaring that the net should be hers. They were about respecting experience, competing honestly and learning to remain useful to the team in different roles. The Olympic result was difficult to reconcile with the experience. Czechia’s tournament ended with a 2–0 quarterfinal loss to Sweden. In the first weeks back on campus, she found herself giving people a blunt summary.

“The Olympics were amazing, but the hockey was (not great).” She was talking about the distance between what the team believed it could achieve and what it ultimately delivered. From that perspective, something remained unfinished. She also mentioned dealing with injury during the Games, another complication in an already demanding season. But there was joy she would not trade, her family being there, including her 79-year-old grandmother, and the support from Dartmouth that felt almost overwhelming. Becoming an Olympian was massive, and being able to share it with those people mattered just as much.

“There’s so much to be proud of…but so much to want more of.”

When we turned to Czechia’s summer camp under Brian Idalski’s new leadership group, her energy shifted toward the players coming next. The Chomutov camp brought together an expanded pool of players. For Hesová, the younger girls’ hunger gave it a fresh impulse. She watched players born in 2009 and 2010 chase, compete and push the established group without appearing intimidated by reputations.

“They had respect, but no respect, you can tell they’re so hungry to get on the team,”

She meant that as a compliment. They respected the players around them, but were not prepared to stand aside for them. Their intensity raised the pace and changed the feeling in the room. At 20, Hesová is already adjusting to being somewhere in the middle, still learning from the senior players, while becoming someone younger players approach for help. That was particularly clear when I mentioned Klára Šrámková. The young defender is moving to Bishop Kearney Selects, following a North American prep-school path Hesová knows firsthand. Her enthusiasm was immediate.

“She’s crafty as hell, but super sweet! She’s at BK this year, and I’m going to try to help with her transition.”

Last summer, we talked about the practical advice she shared with Adéla Šapovalivová and Tereza Plosová as they entered NCAA hockey. The questions now keep coming from younger players, sometimes about something as simple as dorm life. She tries to make herself available. In our 2024 conversation, she described the relationships at Bishop Kearney as a second family. “I’m sad to let BK go, but I’m excited about the new chapter at Dartmouth,” she told me then. Two years later, she is helping someone else begin there. A place she once needed to learn has become a place she can help another Czech player understand.

———————

Dartmouth opens its season on October 16. Czechia’s next major championship is the November 6–16 Worlds in Denmark, which falls during the NCAA season. For Hesová, any selection would bring another test of the preparation and perspective she has been developing. The ambitions remain familiar. Help Dartmouth turn its standards into results, keep earning trust with Czechia and continue refining her game. What feels different is her understanding of what it takes to sustain that work.

When we spoke last year, she was ready for expectations to rise. This year, she could tell me what living with them had actually felt like. There were moments when the game became difficult to love, and people who helped her find her way back to it. There were results she still wants to improve and experiences she will always value. I appreciated her willingness to share all of that. Three years into these conversations, she remains as easy to talk to as ever, but the perspective has deepened. She can call a season unfulfilled and still return eager for the next one.

That is a meaningful place to begin Year Three.