Wisconsin women's hockey sweeps Bemidji, sends off Olympians
While Wisconsin women's hockey will miss one of its finest players, Bemidji State is likely ready to be done with another
Madison, WI — An unfamiliar January senior day ended with a very familiar result on the ice between Wisconsin women’s hockey and the Bemidji State Beavers. Wisconsin held steady atop the WCHA standings with a two-game series sweep, improving to 102-7-5 all-time in matchups against Bemidji.
As the Wisconsin Badgers (23-1-2, 17-1-2 WCHA) turn the page on the Bemidji State Beavers (5-18-3, 2-17-1 WCHA) and look ahead to matchups with the Minnesota Golden Gophers and Ohio State Buckeyes, UW head coach Mark Johnson will make his preparations shorthanded.
Wisconsin’s early senior day has come and gone before five current Badgers depart for the 2026 Olympic Games. Caroline Harvey, Laila Edwards, Ava McNaughton, and Kirsten Simms will compete for Team USA while Adéla Šapovalivová suits up for the Czech national team.
“We knew it was coming,” Johnson said on Sunday of losing several players on his roster for the final four weeks of the regular season. “We talked about it in September as a group, as we got together. Time goes by quickly, and now, here we are.
“Overall, we’ve put ourselves in good position, now we’re gonna get challenged.”
That challenge comes as Wisconsin tries to replace the irreplaceable; meanwhile, the Beavers might be looking forward to a day where one Badgers forward is replaced with anyone else.
Bemidji State is not going to miss Kirsten Simms
The Beavers, sitting 11 points behind the St. Cloud State Huskies and St. Thomas Tommies, are firmly in the basement of the WCHA conference standings. With BSU likely to face the regular-season champion in the first round of the conference tournament, the Beavers would probably not be disappointed to see Simms and the Badgers slip out of first place.
Simms is one of the most prolific scorers in UW’s program history. She ranks fifth all-time in points scored by a Badger, eighth in goals, and fourth in assists. An outsized share of that production has come against BSU.
In this weekend’s series opener, the Michigan native scored a hat trick and added three assists for a career-high six points, becoming just the eighth Badger ever to record six points in a single game. It was the fourth time in her career that Simms logged a hat trick against Bemidji State, bringing her career scoring totals against the Beavers to 22 goals and 19 assists in just 17 games.
Simms added another two goals and an assist in Sunday’s series finale, including her first of the day, where, despite her reputation as BSU’s kryptonite, the two-time first-team all-American skated through the slot untouched.
“I don’t think I’ve walked down Broadway like that in a minute,” Simms said of the open lane. “I had quite the time to see all the angles.”
Wisconsin women’s hockey will miss Caroline Harvey
Writing that the Badgers’ captain, Harvey, is a one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable talent is far from providing readers with a provocative or original thought, but it is a truth worth repeating.
On Saturday, Harvey matched Simms’ six points, becoming the ninth player in program history with a six-point day. Harvey got there with three goals and three assists. According to Todd Milewski of BadgerExtra, it is likely the first hat trick by a UW defender since Sis Paulsen scored three goals against the Minnesota State Mavericks in the program’s first season.
“That’s awesome,” Harvey said upon learning the factoid. “She had a pretty remarkable career herself, so that’s awesome.”
When Sis Paulsen left Madison, she was the program’s all-time leader in points and goals by a Badger defender. Harvey has since broken those records that stood for over two decades, “a pretty remarkable” feat, too.
As an equipment manager for Team USA, Paulsen and Harvey will join forces next month in Milan.
“The girl had six points, but that doesn’t shock me anymore because it’s KK [Harvey],” Simms said after Saturday’s game. “I mean, she’s unbelievable, and she puts the puck in the net pretty much every single day. She creates every single day. I mean, you notice her every single time she touches the ice, and she’s just a super special player.”
Harvey has an excellent shot, a high hockey IQ, and a competitive drive to be the best player she can be, but above all else, Johnson always seems to start any praise of the blue-liner with her ability as a skater.
To score on Sunday, Harvey simply jumped off the bench, intercepted a breakout pass, and skated in alone on Bemidji goaltender Ava Hills. In that moment, the two-time first-team all-American showcased nearly everything in her arsenal.
“The nice thing that she has in her toolbox is she can get there,” Johnson said of the play. “Some players might be able to read a situation, but, you know, it’s like a [defensive back] or a safety, all of a sudden I’m reading the quarterback’s eyes; I see where he’s going to throw it. Can I get there?
“She got there, and then she put a great move on the goaltender and sort of set the tone for what the rest of the first period is going to be like. But that’s, you know, her skating ability is phenomenal.”
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