Wisconsin’s Simms, McNaugton excited to see banner added to rafters
The Wisconsin women’s hockey team will celebrate the 2025 national championship with a banner raising ceremony before its series with Maine Oct. 3.
- The Wisconsin women’s hockey team unveiled the banner commemorating its eighth NCAA championship.
- Wisconsin defeated Maine 5-0 in the first home game of the 2025-26 season.
- Senior Laila Edwards scored two goals while playing defense for the second time in three games.
MADISON – The celebration of an eighth NCAA championship continued Oct. 3 for the Wisconsin women’s hockey team some seven months after the Badgers won it.
These ceremonies get familiar, but they never get old.
So UW took care of leftover business – showing off the banner hung from the LaBahn Arena rafters, away from the others for now – and then took care of business with a 5-0 victory over Maine in the first home game of the 2025-26 season.
Badgers put a bow on their 2024-25 Frozen Four championship
“I think what we did last year is incredible, and I think it definitely needed some recognition,” said senior Laila Edwards. “I think it’s just so cool raising the banner. A lot of alumni come back and you just get to feel what that old team felt like again.
“But as soon as that puck dropped, we flipped the switch. We’ve got a new team this year that I’m really really excited about, and I’m really excited to see how we can follow up the past year.
“Yeah, it was a distraction, but a good distraction that we were able to get back on focus with.”
Edwards scored two goals, Adéla Šapovalivová had a goal and an assist, and Cassie Hall and Vivian Jungels also scored. Lacey Eden recorded two assists.
Junior goaltender Ava McNahguton made 25 saves in her second shutout in three games.
Laila Edwards was back on defense in the home opener
After splitting the opening weekend at Bemidji State between defense and the wing, Edwards was back on defense for the home opener. This time she was paired with junior Laney Potter rather than captain Caroline Harvey.
The 6-foot senior, who led the country in goals scored in 2024-25, played some defense for the Badgers last season and also plays the position with Team USA.
“She was better tonight than she was last Friday in that position,” coach Mark Johnson said. “She was more engaged and played a much better game.
“That’s part of playing a new position and trying to gain some experience and then trying to impact the game. She was able to do that tonight in a lot of different areas, made a lot of nice little plays. So give her a lot of credit for going back there.”
Edwards scored the first goal of the game 5 minutes 19 seconds into the second period and then finished the scoring at 13:58 of the third with her third goal of the season.
“At the end of day, it’s just hockey, so just go out and play, and I think I have fun playing both, so wherever they put me in, I enjoy it,” Edwards said.
“I think (Harvey and Potter) are both incredible players. They have so many different traits that make them exceptional. I really enjoy playing with (Harvey). She’s fast and moves a lot. Very reliable. And then Laney, she’s also just incredible, I think very underrated.”
Adéla Šapovalivová was impressed with the LaBahn crowd, and impressive herself
For someone who’s listed at 5-foot-4, perhaps generously, Šapovalivová is hard to miss on the ice.
In addition to her obvious skills with the puck while centering the top line with senior Kirsten Simms and fifth-year senior Lacey Eden, the Czech freshman doesn’t back down from a scrap.
More than once she came up from a pile with a shove.
“I don’t like to fight – I would like start with this – but if someone punched me, I would give it back,” Šapovalivová said when asked to describe herself as a player. “But I like to create good options for my teammates, so I want to find a good passes so that (they) can score them.”
LaBahn was rocking, as usual, with most of the seats and standing room for nearly 2,300 people full.
Šapovalivová played in front of a similar crowd in the world championships in her homeland, but knowing this is a regular thing at UW impressed her.
It would be so nice if we could do it again. Like, yeah, it would be nice if we will win again.
“Oh, they were amazing. It was so nice,” she said of the fans. “They were cheering for us, like, whole game and it’s nice to play when someone’s cheering for you.”
