Wisconsin women's hockey gets mixed bag of injury updates
Potentially down four of its top contributors, top-ranked Wisconsin women's hockey prepares for a Border Battle with the No. 3 Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Although Wisconsin women’s hockey maintained its undefeated record over the weekend, the injury report remains a chief concern for the Wisconsin Badgers. Already down two first-team All-Americans, another pair of UW’s top contributors suffered injuries and did not return. Now, the top-ranked Badgers face significant injury questions with the No. 3 Minnesota Golden Gophers on deck.
Wisconsin and Minnesota have, as expected, established themselves as forces to be reckoned with in women’s college hockey. With rosters littered chock-full of future Olympians, this weekend may be the only time in the regular season that fans can see UW and UMN at full strength before players spend time away from their collegiate teams to compete in the 2026 Games this February.
“We’re going to get challenged like all the games we’ve played up to this point,” Badgers head coach Mark Johnson said. “Of the ten we’ve played, we’ll be challenged the most in these two games.”
Whether or not Wisconsin will actually be at full strength this weekend, however, remains an open question. Injuries to some of UW’s most impactful players have put a shadow over the 10-0 Badgers. Comments from Johnson and a mid-week practice provided a mixed bag of answers to the questions surrounding his injured stars.
Prognosis improves for Wisconsin women’s hockey All-Americans
Laila Edwards was the first Badger to go down, followed shortly by Kirsten Simms. The reigning first-team All-Americans each exited games with lower-body injuries in back-to-back weekends. Two seasons ago, Simms scored more goals than any other player in the country. Last season, Edwards was the nation’s goal-scoring champ.
Those injuries put Wisconsin at risk of being down two of its greatest offensive threats as Minnesota offensive juggernaut Abbey Murphy visits Madison. Murphy currently leads the NCAA Division I in goals and has finished no worse than third each of the past three seasons.
Some encouraging news from Johnson, however, opened the door, if only just a small crack, to the possibility that Edwards and Simms would be available this weekend.
Before his team’s series-sweeping victory over the Minnesota State Mavericks on Sunday, Johnson revealed in a pre-game radio interview that the pair of two-time national champions had resumed skating. In a Tuesday press conference, the news had improved further.
“They’re going to practice today with us,” Johnson said. “And so, we’ll get a better feel of, you know, what tomorrow looks like and how they’re progressing, but it’s encouraging.”
While Wisconsin’s record remains unblemished through ten games, most of its contests without Edwards and Simms have come against lesser competition. UW has only played one game against a ranked opponent, the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs, without Edwards. The Badgers have recorded three straight shutouts, over the unranked Union Garnet Chargers and Minnesota State, with Simms largely unavailable.
Even offensively, Wisconsin has not yet dropped off. Its 5.6 goals per game are the most in the country. With the surprising production of WCHA Forward of the Week Claire Enright, who had not scored through the first seven games of her senior season, but has since tallied six in UW’s past three games, the Badgers have not missed a beat.
As a more formidable foe sits around the corner, Wisconsin will have its depth tested even beyond its top contributors.
Laney Potter, Adéla Šapovalivová injury updates
With Edwards and Simms already sidelined, a pair of third-period injuries made last weekend’s shutout victories more eventful than the final score might indicate. On Saturday, Laney Potter exited with an apparent lower-body injury after a collision with Mavericks winger Mercury Bischoff. Potter did not play on Sunday in a game in which forward Adéla Šapovalivová suffered a suspected hand/wrist injury in the closing minutes.
Johnson said Potter and Šapovalivová “will be back soon… now you tell me what soon means.”
Potter and Šapovalivová became offensive fixtures with Edwards and Simms sidelined. Potter has taken a significant step forward in her offensive production and is up to four goals on the season, matching her career high. She contributed four points in the first two games following Edwards’ injury.
Šapovalivová entered the season as the favorite to win the WCHA Rookie of the Year Award. As Wisconsin women’s hockey all-time leading scorer Casey O’Brien exhausted her eligibility, Šapovalivová stepped into O’Brien’s role as the top-line center. Šapovalivová, the first European-born player in program history, is one of seven Badgers with double-digit points with 12, the fifth-most nationally among rookies.
While Wisconsin has gotten more than it could have asked for from its next crop of contributors behind Edwards and Simms, it will need plenty of offensive firepower to best Minnesota. The Golden Gophers and Badgers are the only teams in the country scoring more than five goals per game.
“It is what it is, so the puzzle changes a little bit as each of those situations is presented to you,” Johnson said of the cascading effect on his lineup. “And so, how do we put the puzzle together? And so, I can’t put the puzzle together here on Tuesday. I might have a little better idea tomorrow what that puzzle looks like.”
Both players had been major special teams contributors beyond their impact at five-on-five. In recent weeks, they made up two of the five players on Johnson’s top power play unit–on which Potter had replaced the injured Edwards. Potter and Šapovalivová were also fixtures on Wisconsin’s nation-leading penalty kill that has yet to surrender a goal.
“We’ve got the players that we’re gonna practice with today, and then we’ll wake up tomorrow, and we might have a few more. We might not have a few more.”
After observing Tuesday's practice (which was open to the media), the puzzle is starting to come together.
3 observations from Wisconsin women’s hockey’s Tuesday practice
The extent of Šapovalivová’s injury is more apparent…
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