Top Badgers return for postseason after ‘B-Squad’ secured WCHA title
· Yahoo Sports
The Wisconsin Badgers self-proclaimed “B-Squad” carried the torch from late January through the end of the regular season, going 6-2 while the team’s five Olympians competed at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and bringing home another WCHA regular season title in the process. Now, the roster is back at full strength and ready to begin the hunt for another national championship.
There was nothing routine about what the B-Squad accomplished over the last month. No. 1 Wisconsin (29-3-2, 23-3-2 WCHA) had a roster ravaged by Olympic departures, losing significantly more scoring than any other NCAA team, and the new-look roster was tasked with playing four of its eight games against Ohio State and Minnesota while clinging to a narrow WCHA lead. They managed splits with the two juggernauts before ending the season 4-0 with sweeps over Minnesota State and St. Cloud State.
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Following the split with Ohio State, the Badgers protected a two-point conference lead, knowing that any loss would swing the WCHA in the Buckeyes’ favor. They did so on the back of some phenomenal goaltending by freshman Rhyah Stewart and some explosive offense courtesy of Lacey Eden and Kelly Gorbatenko.
Eden’s prolific stretch over the last two months has catapulted her into the national lead for both points (68) and assists (41), surpassing Minnesota’s Abbey Murphy and Wisconsin teammate Caroline Harvey, who will both be chasing Eden after returning from Italy.
With four goals last weekend, Eden joined Hilary Knight, Brianna Decker, and Meghan Duggan to become the fourth Badger with 100 career goals.
Now that Wisconsin secured the WCHA regular season title and Team USA brought home the gold medal, it’s time for the Badgers to get back to business with the first round of the WCHA tournament kicking off on Friday night. The top-seeded Badgers will host Bemidji State in a best-of-three series at LaBahn Arena for the right to play in the 2026 Kwik Trip WCHA Final Faceoff.
Bemidji State (6-25-3, 3-24-1 WCHA) posed little resistance in the four meetings against Wisconsin this year, going 0-4 while being outscored 30-6. The Badgers advancing is pretty much a formality at this point, though they may need this series to shake off some of the rust and re-assimilate to playing with one another. Harvey, Edwards, Simms, and Šapovalivová have all been active, but they’ve spent weeks skating with different teams. Ava McNaughton will reclaim her spot between the pipes, but of the five returning players, she has seen the least live action since the Olympics started, seeing less than two minutes of ice time in Italy.
Wisconsin opened WCHA tournament play last year against Bemidji State as well, seeing Casey O’Brien deliver some record-setting performances that saw her become the program’s all-time leading scorer and post five points in the opening period. The fireworks this weekend should be similar, with fans undoubtedly giving the women a raucous welcome back after their gold medal performance. After the pomp and circumstance before the game, the play on the ice should be business as usual.
It’s easy to take for granted, but this is a dominant team regardless of who suits up. Wisconsin had to deal with injuries and national team absences at different points this season, but the Badgers went wire-to-wire as the top-ranked team throughout the regular season. A team that learned how to play without a few of their stars now gets Olympic MVP Caroline Harvey back on the blue line, along with arguably the NCAA’s best goaltender in Ava McNaughton. Oh, and don’t forget last year’s NCAA-leading goal scorer in Laila Edwards and the 2023-24 leading point scorer in Kirsten Simms.
The B-Squad is a great team in its own right, but its A-Squad is transcendent. All that’s left is a deep run in March as Wisconsin looks to be the last team standing on March 22. I don’t want to ask the returning players if they’d prefer an Olympic gold or back-to-back national titles when there’s a better question that can be asked – why not both?
Game Info
Date: February 27-28 (March 1 if necessary)
Time: Friday – 6:00 p.m. | Saturday – 3:00 p.m.
Place: Madison, Wis. | LaBahn Arena
TV: B1G+ | Radio: 1070 AM