Badger Womens Hockey 2025-26

[Pokerbrat2000]

I can't think of any better way to start the new season off than this. A short and well done documentary on the 2025 Championship game.

Love hearing each players perspective about various moments of a classic.

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[Pokerbrat2000]

Also a must watch is the next day Celebration.

Take note of all the accomplishments and awards, both on and off the ice, of this team. The 2024-25 team might have been the greatest in the history of the program and quite possibly, in the history of NCAA Women's Hockey.

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[Pokerbrat2000]

Holy Cow!!!

Badgers score two goals in the final 20 seconds of the game to pull out a come from behind win against The Duluth Bulldogs by a score of 4-3.

Both of those goals were scored by Cassie Hall.

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[Pokerbrat2000]

Tough loss for Bucky. I left the house with the Badgers flying on the ice, up 1-0, 24 shots on goal to the Gophers 11, in a game they could have been up 4-0, what the heck happened out there?

I did notice that Laila Edwards was really off. Missing passes, shots, slow skating, etc. I think Johnson shouldn't have played her (knee injury), but I assume the medical staff cleared her.

Anyway, that was a 1-5 wake-up call for Bucky, let's go get them today!!

They need to run the table on wins, before they loose their best 5 players to the Olympic team; Lacey Eden, Laila Edwards, Caroline Harvey, Ava McNaughton, and Kirsten Simms.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Great bounce back game today for Bucky! With a goal 14 seconds into the game, they came out flying. They end up pounding the Gophers 7-2. Once the game got out of reach, Abbey Murphy and other Gophers started playing like the Hanson Brothers. Same thing they did at Ohio State. Murphy is such a good player for the Gophers, but what a goon!

To the Badgers credit, they have 3 key players out with injuries. Really wish there was better reporting on Womens sports.

 

[Voyageur]

Nice come from behind win for the women's hockey team tonight. They took it in overtime after a goal was denied as the clock ran out which would have been the winner. They put on a 3rd period show of power hockey. Excellent win.

The men went East Lansing and knocked off the #1 team in the nation. Michigan State was on a roll. Wisconsin fell behind early and did not look good. But they turned on the offense in the second period and took the lead. In the 3rd period the Badgers held a 2-goal lead most of the time but twice had MSU score to make it a one goal game. That's how it ended. This was well played game in a lot of respects, but the Badgers need to do a better job of protecting the weak side against opponents. They gave up 3 or 4 of the four goals tonight by shots from that side. Not a good thing to happen.

Mike Hastings was a good choice as the new Badgers HC. The guy knows how to recruit and how to set his teams on the ice. I wish he was about 35 years old instead of 59. We'd have him around for decades.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Bucky sweeps #1 MSU @MSU! 2-1 in OT!

 

[Voyageur]

Bucky sweeps #1 MSU @MSU! 2-1 in OT!

I watched both games. Did a dual watch tonight with the football game. Needless to say I'm smiling.

Hastings is an amazing coach and recruiter. He also knows how to match up his lines as well as anyone I've seen. He matches his players, so they all become part of the equation on almost every turn on the ice. No one man shows, and no super star players, just teamwork.

They're going to continue to surprise a lot of people this year. Who knows how far they'll take it.

Imagine the near impossible. Wisconsin winning both the men's and women's national championships. Wouldn't that be something for the record books.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

The Badger women outshot Mercyhurst 61-16, in 5-1 win today.

61 shots on goal! That's one per minute!

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Badger Womens Hockey team outscored the men's football team by 10!

They won today, 17-2, to win the Guitar Trophy in the SMASHVILLE Women's Collegiate Hockey Showcase in Nashville.

Oh, and they had 87 shots on goal!

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Really tough stretch of the schedule here for the Badgers. Not just the fact that they are going up against the #2 and #3 teams in the Nation, but having to do it without 4 (Laila Edwards, Caroline Harvey, Ava McNaughton, Kirsten Simms) of their top players, and a star freshman (Adéla Šapovalivová) as well. Those 5 players are over in Italy at the Olympics.

Not having McNaughton in goal might be the toughest loss.

That said, they split with #3 Minnesota over the weekend, at Minnesota, without their 5 stars. The gophers were only missing Abbey Murphy due to the Olympics. Bucky faired pretty well, considering who was missing. They lost in OT on Friday 2-3 and came back and dominated in a 6-1 win on Saturday.

Lacey Eden and Cassie Hall, who both probably could be Olympians are really picking up the slack in their teammates absence. Freshman Goalie Rhyah Stewart got both starts and actually, played quite well, so that is promising.

This weekend series with the #2 Buckeyes will be a big challenge. While it will be at home for Bucky, the Buckeyes have been playing quite well as of late. They have won 10 in a row, since being swept in Columbus by the Badgers in early Dec. OSU has lost only 1 other game this season and that was against the Gophers in October. Fortunately for the Badgers, the Buckeyes have 5 Olympians as well, with Joy Dunne being 1 of them. I won't miss having to stop Dunne.

I guess the good thing for the Badgers, after this weekend, their final 2 series will be against 2 of the weaker teams in the WCHA, Minnesota St. and St. Cloud St.. After that, I believe the Olympians will be home, just in time for the start of the WCHA Tournament.

 

[Voyageur]

Really tough stretch of the schedule here for the Badgers. Not just the fact that they are going up against the #2 and #3 teams in the Nation, but having to do it without 4 (Laila Edwards, Caroline Harvey, Ava McNaughton, Kirsten Simms) of their top players, and a star freshman (Adéla Šapovalivová) as well. Those 5 players are over in Italy at the Olympics.

Not having McNaughton in goal might be the toughest loss.

That said, they split with #3 Minnesota over the weekend, at Minnesota, without their 5 stars. The gophers were only missing Abbey Murphy due to the Olympics. Bucky faired pretty well, considering who was missing. They lost in OT on Friday 2-3 and came back and dominated in a 6-1 win on Saturday.

Lacey Eden and Cassie Hall, who both probably could be Olympians are really picking up the slack in their teammates absence. Freshman Goalie Rhyah Stewart got both starts and actually, played quite well, so that is promising.

This weekend series with the #2 Buckeyes will be a big challenge. While it will be at home for Bucky, the Buckeyes have been playing quite well as of late. They have won 10 in a row, since being swept in Columbus by the Badgers in early Dec. OSU has lost only 1 other game this season and that was against the Gophers in October. Fortunately for the Badgers, the Buckeyes have 5 Olympians as well, with Joy Dunne being 1 of them. I won't miss having to stop Dunne.

I guess the good thing for the Badgers, after this weekend, their final 2 series will be against 2 of the weaker teams in the WCHA, Minnesota St. and St. Cloud St.. After that, I believe the Olympians will be home, just in time for the start of the WCHA Tournament.

I watched both of the Minnesota games. In the OT loss, they just weren't in sync yet without their top players. The following day, they were moving the puck and weren't tentative. One of the biggest differences I saw in day two was that their shots were meaningful whereas on day one they were just dumped at the net without looking for good passes to make. Like two completely different teams. OSU is going to be tough. Hope I can watch those games. I'm glad they're going to be playing in Madison.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Rough game for Bucky on Saturday. Being without Harvey, Simms, Edwards and McNaughton really showed yesterday. They played ok in the 2nd period, but in the 1st and 3rd periods, they really looked out of sync. I hope they come back today with a much better effort.

In Team USA Hockey, the Badgers dominated Finland on Saturday. I just hope that none of the players walk away from the game with the norovirus.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Just like last weeks series with the Gophers, the Badgers give up game #1 and bounce back nicely to win the 2nd game of the series. 4 games left in the regular season and all 4 are manageable W's, even without their 5 Olympians.

Speaking of Olympics. In watching this, the 3rd game in the Women's preliminary round of 4 games, I'm not excited with the move to play Laila Edwards at Defense. Mark Johnson played around with this idea and I think soon discovered that she was a much better forward and far more valuable to the team at that position. While at 6'1" she has the size to play defense, I think she is too slow and not that great with her stick playing defense. Her bread and butter is close to the net, where she can physically dominate and position herself to score and assist on goals. I did read that the main reason that coaches decided to play her on Team USA at defense, was a shortage of quality defensive players and a plethora of very talented forwards. So I am glad that she is playing in the Olympics, I hope she sees some time playing closer to the net.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

KK Harvey was just dominant today! Scoring 3 points (1 goal, 2 assists) in the US's 5-0 win over Switzerland. She's gotta be the odds on favorite to win the Patty Kazmaier Award this year. She isn't just phenomenal on defense, but with her 54 points leads the next defenseman in scoring by a whopping 24 points.

 

[Voyageur]

KK Harvey was just dominant today! Scoring 3 points (1 goal, 2 assists) in the US's 5-0 win over Switzerland. She's gotta be the odds on favorite to win the Patty Kazmaier Award this year. She isn't just phenomenal on defense, but with her 54 points leads the next defenseman in scoring by a whopping 24 points.

Watched it. Solid game. I think the reason he put her on defense was that he wanted a defender who could also generate a lot of offense to create mismatches. It could pay off against Canada. We'll know after the game tomorrow. We did see some of that today where she was initiating offense.

She's so darned talented you can play her anywhere. I'd bet she'd make the Olympic team as a goalie. Such an amazing athlete.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Badgers.....I mean US totally dominates Canada today!!

All 3 Badgers got a goal (Harvey, Simms and Edwards). KK picks up 2 assists as well.

Frankel only had to make 20 saves, but she looked great between the pipes.

Another 5-0 win and a convincing one at that!

 

[El Guapo]

Fantastic game all around, and don't forget the three assists and four (I think) penalties drawn by Abbey Murphy. She got under the Canadians' skin all night.

Edwards doesn't play fast but she is so effective. That highlight that between periods where they showed Edwards swatting a Canadian to the ice was great.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Fantastic game all around, and don't forget the three assists and four (I think) penalties drawn by Abbey Murphy. She got under the Canadians' skin all night.

As a Badger fan, and Murphy being a Gopher, I can see why they say..."You hate her if she's your opponent, but love her if she's your teammate."

I hope she stays an Olympian for many years to come, but I'll be glad to see the Gophers biggest agitator/pest of all times, graduate this year.

 

[Voyageur]

I didn't see the first period but watched the second and third. I would have never believed the US team could dominate Canada like they did. The Badgers had some amazing players out there on the ice helping to make this happen.

Like I mentioned in a previous post, Edwards can play almost any position because she is so talented. Like El Guapo said, she doesn't play fast but effectively. She has this ability to see plays developing and knows how to position herself so she can make plays as the develop in front of her. Watching her play defense reminds me a little bit of Ray Bourque, and his ability to create offense while still being cognizant of his role on defense. His ability to set others up to succeed was amazing. He was always a thorn in the side of the Blackhawks during his career with the Bruins.

I believe he was one of the highest scoring defensemen in the history of the game, and the vast majority of it came on his ability to set others up for goals. He became a master of getting assists. I remember that after his number was retired, he handed it to Phil Esposito. Two of the best players, maybe the very best, who wore #7.

 

[El Guapo]

It's fair to keep in mind that the best player was not on the ice - Marie-Philip Poulin. She doesn't make a 5 goal difference but she is great. I'm sure that when these two teams meet again next week that she will inspire better play out of her team.

What struck me overall was how most of the game was played in the Canadian zone. Our offense and defense was decidedly better. The Canadians' penalty kill was about their only bright spot. I don't remember us getting many shot attempts and only one PP goal.

 

[El Guapo]

As a Badger fan, and Murphy being a Gopher, I can see why they say..."You hate her if she's your opponent, but love her if she's your teammate."

Similar to Abbey Murphy, my wife grew up playing sports against her older, male cousins. She was a tenacious athlete in her own right. You see the same passion and style of play out of Murphy. She learned that she had to fight for everything playing against the boys.

As someone that still coaches youth sports and runs a few coed adult rec leagues, I see it as a fine line to walk. More often than not, girls/women are quickly turned off by the way that guys play in that they typically ignore (play around) women in a game. Some of the great female athletes are the ones who double down and say "no way" are you going to exclude me or treat me different. That defiance creates great players, but unfortunately also discourages far too many from continuing to play.

 

[Voyageur]

Similar to Abbey Murphy, my wife grew up playing sports against her older, male cousins. She was a tenacious athlete in her own right. You see the same passion and style of play out of Murphy. She learned that she had to fight for everything playing against the boys.

As someone that still coaches youth sports and runs a few coed adult rec leagues, I see it as a fine line to walk. More often than not, girls/women are quickly turned off by the way that guys play in that they typically ignore (play around) women in a game. Some of the great female athletes are the ones who double down and say "no way" are you going to exclude me or treat me different. That defiance creates great players, but unfortunately also discourages far too many from continuing to play.

There's a lot to it when it comes to young ladies becoming super basketball, soccer, and softball stars, who have had to compete with boys in their family who gave them no quarter. You get better by facing tough competition. The tougher the better, and if you look at so many women athletes who are special, they've traveled that route with older siblings that are boys, and them going out and competing with those guys.