Laitinen & Murphy, four Gopher Women's Hockey alumnae named to Olympic team rosters for 2026 Winter Games
Current Gopher Women's Hockey team co-captains Nelli Laitinen & Abbey Murphy and alumnae Taylor Heise, Kelly Pannek, Lee Stecklein, and Grace Zumwinkle were selected yesterday to represent their respective nations at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games next month in Milan & Cortina, Italy.
Murphy, Heise, Pannek, Stecklein, and Zumwinkle were named to the U.S. Olympic Women's Hockey Team roster in a joint release with the rosters of the American Olympic Men's Hockey Team and Paralympic Sled Hockey Team. The 2026 Winter Games will be the fourth Olympics for Stecklein, the third for Pannek, the second for both Murphy & Zumwinkle, and the first for Heise. Stecklein and Pannek earned gold medals in 2018 in PyeongChang, and they were joined by Murphy and Zumwinkle as silver medalists in 2022 in Beijing. Stecklein also previously earned silver in 2014 in Sochi.
Laitinen will be headed to her second Winter Games after being named to Finland's 2026 Olympic Women's Hockey Team. She and her Finnish teammates claimed bronze at the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing; in the process, Laitinen tallied 7 points on 2 goals & 5 assists.
Though the Opening Ceremony for the 2026 Winter Olympics will occur on Friday, February 6, the women's ice hockey tournament begins the previous day – Thursday, February 5. Preliminary round play in the tiered group format runs through Tuesday, February 10. All five teams from Group A plus the top 3 teams from Group B will qualify for the playoff round, which begins with the quarterfinals on February 13 & 14, followed by the semifinals on Monday, February 16, and the medal games on Thursday, February 19.
We congratulate all six players on these honors and send a round of good luck wishes their way!! We continue to watch for additional Olympic team roster announcements, expected over the coming days.
Copyright © 2026 Power Play Club, All rights reserved.
You can receive the Penalty Box Post newsletter via email by signing up here.
Follow the Power Play Club online at www.powerplayclub.org, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PowerPlayClubMN, or on X at x.com/powerplayclub.
Follow the Gopher women's hockey team and all Univ. of Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletics at gophersports.com. You can also find the Gopher women's hockey team on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GopherWomensHockey and on X at x.com/GopherWHockey.