Wisconsin Badgers win gold, cement Knight's Olympic legacy
Hilary Knight, Caroline Harvey, and Laila Edwards delivered on women's hockey's greatest stage
Current and former Wisconsin Badgers women’s hockey players dominated headlines, storylines, and the blueline in the lead-up to the 2026 Winter Olympic Games. The buzz in Madison reached such a fervor that no one would have blamed the 11 UW greats on the US and Canadian national teams for failing to live up to the hype.
But live up to the hype they did. And then some.
Given the Wisconsin flavor of it all, perhaps it was fitting that Team USA managed to win its third women’s ice hockey Olympic gold medal in come-from-behind fashion. After all, the four current Badgers on the team had just won a national championship by securing five consecutive comeback playoff victories.
Further, perhaps it was fitting that perhaps the greatest US Winter Olympian of all time, and the greatest Wisconsin women’s hockey alumna, capped her run as Captain America thanks to an assist by a Badger simply too talented to leave off the roster—no matter the position.
Caroline Harvey wins 2026 Olympic Tournament MVP
After a year of co-captaining her team to a national championship, Caroline Harvey returned to Madison with everything in front of her. A rare second stint as UW’s team captain, a chance to win the Patty Kazmaier Award, a spot on a medal-contending US Olympic Team waiting, and the opportunity to be taken number-one overall in this summer’s PWHL Draft loomed for the one-of-a-kind talent.
“Let’s make sure we enjoy it, and she stays healthy and has a very, very special year,” Wisconsin head coach Mark Johnson said in September about the opportunities looming for Harvey.
Regardless of what happens in the month between now and the national collegiate women’s ice hockey championship game, Johnson’s top blue-liner has already had ‘a very, very special year.’ Harvey finished the 2026 Olympic Games as the tournament MVP after leading all skaters with nine points.
Harvey’s rise from playing merely two shifts in the 2022 Olympic gold medal game to 2026 Tournament MVP would only be more amazing if it were more unexpected. In the four IIHF World Championships between Olympics, Harvey has tallied a total of 11 goals and 25 assists. Since Beijing, she has scored 50 points in 46 games with the senior national team and, in the words of Laila Edwards, “become the best player in the world.”
Laila Edwards, Hilary Knight, and OHMYGOD
Oh, yeah, speaking of Edwards.
The first black woman to make a US Olympic women’s ice hockey roster was instrumental in helping the red, white, and blue strike gold. She finished with eight points in Milan, behind only Harvey and GMG OT GWG scorer Megan Keller’s nine. None of those eight points proved more pivotal than Edwards’ assist on Knight’s goal in the final 124 seconds to force overtime on Thursday.
By finishing as one of the tournament’s top scorers and earning more ice time than nearly any player, Edwards proved USA Hockey’s power brokers right: the Cleveland Heights native was too talented to leave in Madison, no matter what position she had to play.
Edwards finished as the nation’s leading goal scorer in college a season ago. Despite accomplishing that feat on the wing, Team USA insisted on playing the 2024 IIHF World Championships MVP at defender. The gamble paid off, despite some hiccups along the way, as Edwards’ hard shot proved invaluable.
Edwards’ final assist of the tournament, providing the shot Knight tipped in to snap Canada’s shutout bid after 26 shots, was the stuff of legends.
With Knight’s goal, she not only sent the gold medal game to overtime, but Wisconsin women’s hockey’s all-time leading goal scorer (143) also became Team USA’s career leader in points (33) and goals (15) at the Olympics. Frankly, Knight may be the greatest American Winter Olympian of all time.
The former Wisconsin Badgers captain turned USA captain has five Olympic medals (two gold, three silver) to her name. Only four other Americans (speedskater Eric Heiden, bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor, speedskater Bonnie Blair, and speedskater Apolo Ohno) boast five or more medals.
“She just keeps setting the bar higher and higher,” Harvey said of Knight in January shortly after the US Olympic roster was announced.
Blair and Taylor’s six, not to mention Ohno’s jaw-dropping eight, certainly weigh heavier than Knight’s five, but each of those three athletes won multiple medals in a single Games at least once—an opportunity not afforded to ice hockey players.
Heiden, a Wisconsin native, won gold in five different speedskating events in 1980, as impressive a performance as anyone can have at a single Games. But there is something to be said for Knight’s (not to mention Team Canada captain Marie-Philip Poulin’s) position atop the sport from 2010 to today.
Without a doubt, Knight will soon enough join former UW captain Brianna Decker in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Canadian Wisconsin women’s hockey alums come up short
After being pulled in two of her past three starts against the US, former Wisconsin women’s hockey goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens came up just shy of gold medal game perfection for Canada. For nearly 58 minutes, the 2017 Patty Kazmaier Award winner looked unbeatable, nearly completing an unforgettable redemption arc.
With American goals scored on a redirection and after a lackluster Canadian line change, it is hard to pin much, if any, blame on Desbiens for Team Canada’s late demise.
Daryl Watts joins Desbiens in falling just shy of a storybook ending. After finally getting a far too late debut on the Canadian senior national team at the 2025 World Championships, the former Badger made her Olympic debut at age 26. Finishing tied for third among all scorers with two goals and six assists, Watts proved she always deserved to sport the Maple Leaf.
Watts, who, along with USA gold medalist Kirsten Simms, remains one of only two Badgers to score national championship overtime game winners, provided a much-needed injection of offense to a Canadian roster that severely lacked the offensive firepower of its better Olympic squads. Canada scored only 22 goals in Milan, its third-fewest of any Games. Only once has Canada won gold while scoring fewer than 30 goals.
Team Canada forward and former Badger, Sarah Nurse, suffered an upper-body injury in November, which may leave Canadians with a lingering ‘what if’ about the 2026 team’s ability to generate offense. Nurse returned to play for the PWHL Vancouver Goldeneyes in mid-January after nearly two months off the ice. At the 2022 Games, the former UW alternate captain set records for the most points (18) and assists (13) in a single Olympics.
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