DULUTH — Four weeks remain in the WCHA’s 2025-26 regular season, and five of the league’s eight teams will be shorthanded down the stretch
as 19 current players take part in the 2026 Olympics
in Milan, Italy.
Minnesota Duluth will be without two players — Swedish defenseman Ida Karlsson and wing Thea Johansson — this weekend at Ohio State, while the Buckeyes are going to be without a league-high five players at 5 p.m. CST Friday and 2 p.m. CST Saturday at the OSU Ice Rink.
The Buckeyes have three Swedes playing alongside Karlsson and Johansson in Italy: freshman defenseman Jenna Raunio, sophomore defenseman Mira Jungaker and freshman forward Hilda Svensson. Junior forward Joy Dunne is playing for the United States and freshman forward Sanni Vanhanen is playing for Finland.
“They’re still an incredibly gifted hockey team,” UMD coach Laura Schuler said of an OSU squad that will be without two-thirds of its top line and half of its top six forwards. “Their forecheck is tenacious. They come at you hard. They pinch down the walls on you. We’ll still attack the same way we’ve always attacked against them.
“Not much will change. They’re probably going to play the same type of game. I don’t think tactics change too much because players are in and out of the lineup.”
Minnesota Duluth defenseman Ida Karlsson (24) skates with the puck against Ohio State on Friday, Nov. 21 at Amsoil Arena in Duluth.
Clint Austin / File / Duluth Media Group
Dunne is the WCHA’s second-leading goalscorer with 25, while Johansson leads the Bulldogs with 15, putting her ninth in the WCHA. Four of the top six and six of the top 10 goalscorers in the WCHA will be gone for the final month of the regular season.
Wisconsin and Minnesota will play each other this weekend in Minneapolis minus four players each. The Gophers will be without the WCHA’s leader in goals and penalty minutes, Abbey Murphy. The Badgers will be missing their leading scorers, Kirsten Simms and Caroline Harvey, and starting goaltender Ava McNaughton.
Three of the WCHA’s eight teams still have their roster intact — Minnesota State, St. Thomas and Bemidji State, though the Mavericks are without head coach Shari Dickerson and the Tommies are without assistant coach Alli Altmann. Both are on staff of Team USA as assistant coaches.
The Bulldogs host the Beavers and Tommies in February before traveling to Minneapolis to play the shorthanded Gophers in the final series of the regular season.
“Everyone’s rosters are going to look different,” said Schuler, who played for Canada in the 1998 Olympics. “Their lineup is going to look different, as is ours. This past week was probably important for everybody to see different line combinations, where chemistry might also be.”
2026 Olympics
Ohio State (5)
Joy Dunne, USA
Sanni Vanhanen, Finland
Jenna Raunio, Sweden
Mira Jungaker, Sweden
Hilda Svensson, Sweden
Minnesota (4)
Abbey Murphy, USA
Nelli Laitinen, Finland
Josefin Bouveng, Sweden
Tereza Plosova, Czechia
Wisconsin (4)
Caroline Harvey, USA
Ava McNaughton, USA
Kirsten Simms, USA
Adela Sapovalivova, Czechia
St. Cloud State (4)
Emilia Kyrkko, Finland
Siiri Yrjola, Finland
Laura Zimmerman, Switzerland
Svenja Voigt, Germany
Minnesota Duluth (2)
Ida Karlsson, Sweden
Thea Johansson, Sweden
Jocelyne Larocque, Canada
Caroline Ouellette, Canada (assistant coach)
Tindra Holm, Sweden
Emma Soderberg, Sweden
Lara Stalder, Switzerland
Katerina Mrazova, Czechia
Nina Jobst-Smith, Germany
Co-host of the Bulldog Insider Podcast and college hockey reporter for the Duluth News Tribune covering the Minnesota Duluth men’s and women’s hockey programs.