U.S. Medalist Tracker: Golden Women’s Hockey Roster Highlighted By PWHL Stars

For all the talk about the return of NHL players to the Olympic Winter Games for the first time since 2014, women’s hockey is having a similar milestone Games of its own. This year marks the first time players from the three-year-old Professional Women’s Hockey League have taken part in the Winter Olympics.

In all, the league had 61 players competing in Milan during these Olympic Games. Of the 23 players on Team USA’s roster, 16 hail from the PWHL, which this year has expanded from its Inaugural Six to eight teams: the Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost, Montreal Vitoire, New York Sirens, Ottawa Charge, Seattle Torrent, Toronto Sceptres and Vancouver Goldeneyes. Five of those teams — all but New York, Toronto and Vancouver — are represented in Milan Cortina. (The seven remaining players are college athletes, including four from the University of Wisconsin.)

Like the NHL, the PWHL took a break from its schedule to allow players to take part, pausing the season after games on Jan. 28. The schedule will resume with a game between Montreal and New York on Feb. 26.

Fittingly, the woman overseeing the PWHL has plenty of Olympic ties too, though she never got to play in both at the same time. Jayna Hefford won four gold medals for Team Canada and now serves as the PWHL’s executive vice president for operations. She knows well the potential impact these Games can have on the sport.

“The Olympics is such a global platform of people that will see women’s hockey, perhaps for the first time,” Hefford told Olympics.com. “They’ll start to learn about these women. They’ll fall in love with them as athletes, and they’ll want to follow them.”

The U.S. has won a medal at every Winter Games in which women’s hockey has been contested, starting with taking the gold in Nagano in 1998. The Americans added a second gold in Pyeongchang in 2018, and have also brought home four silvers and a bronze.

In a thrilling gold medal game on February 19, Team USA completed the golden hat trick, defeating five-time Olympic champion Canada 2-1 on an overtime goal by Megan Keller.

Just as SportsTravel did with our non-hockey U.S. medalist tracker, here’s a look at the road to glory for the 23 members of Team USA who skated off with the gold medal.

Cayla Barnes

Age: 26
Hometown: Eastvale, California
Most Recent Team: Seattle Torrent

Road to Glory: A two-time Olympian entering Milan, Barnes played at Ohio State and Boston College. She has two goals and 11 assists so far this season for the Torrent.

Q&A: USA Hockey CEO Pat Kelleher on how his organization is taking advantage of the Games

Hannah Bilka

Age: 24
Hometown: Coppell, Texas
Most Recent Team: Seattle Torrent

Road to Glory: Like Barnes, Bilka played for Ohio State and Boston College. She is tied for the lead in Milan with four goals in six games, outpacing her start with Seattle, for whom she has five goals in 16 games.

Alex Carpenter

Age: 31
Hometown: North Reading, Massachusetts
Most Recent Team: Seattle Torrent

Road to Glory: Her father, Bobby, played 18 seasons in the NHL. Alex has 11 goals this season for Seattle, but still lives in the offseason in China, where she has also played professionally.

Kendall Coyne Schofield

Age: 33
Hometown: Palos Heights, Illinois
Most Recent Team: Minnesota Frost

Road to Glory: A former NCAA player of the year at Northeastern (from where she later got a master’s degree), Coyne Schofield helped the Frost win two Walter Cups as league champions. She is married to NFL offensive linemen, Michael Schofield III.

Britta Curl-Salemme

Age: 25
Hometown: Bismarck, North Dakota
Most Recent Team: Minnesota Frost

Road to Glory: Curl-Salemme helped Wisconsin win three national championships before joining the Frost, which then won the Walter Cup in her first season.

Joy Dunne

Age: 20
Hometown: O’Fallon, Missouri
Most Recent Team: Ohio State University

Road to Glory: One of six siblings, all of whom play hockey, Dunne scored the national championship-winning goal for Ohio State in 2024.

Laila Edwards

Age: 22
Hometown: Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Most Recent Team: University of Wisconsin

Road to Glory: Edwards has helped Wisconsin win two national championships and made history as the first Black woman to play hockey for team USA at the Olympics.

Aerin Frankel

Age: 26
Hometown: Chappaqua, New York
Most Recent Team: Boston Fleet

Road to Glory: Frankel has been the top goalkeeper at the Games, posting three shutouts and recording an Olympics-best 98.5 save percentage while leading the U.S. to the gold medal game.

Rory Guilday

Age: 23
Hometown: Chanhassen, Minnesota
Most Recent Team: Ottawa Charge

Road to Glory: Guilday has overcome incredible odds in her young life. In 2016, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor that led to her losing most of the sight in her right eye. Yet she still starred at Cornell and has reached the PWHL.

Caroline Harvey

Age: 23
Hometown: Salem, New Hampshire
Most Recent Team: University of Wisconsin

Road to Glory: She made her Olympic debut at age 19 in 2022, the youngest player on Team USA’s silver-medal-winning roster. She has won two national titles at Wisconsin and earned praise as one of the best defensemen in the world.

Taylor Heise

Age: 25
Hometown: Lake City, Minnesota
Most Recent Team: Minnesota Frost

Road to Glory: Heise was named national player of the year while starring at the University of Minnesota, and then was the No. 1 pick of the first PWHL draft in 2023. Her younger brother, Nate, is currently playing a leading role for a top-1o ranked Iowa State men’s basketball team.

Tessa Janecke

Age: 21
Hometown: Warren, Illinois
Most Recent Team: Penn State

Road to Glory: Janecke is the all-time leading scorer for a Penn State program that has four players at these Olympic Games. At the 2025 World Championships, she scored the gold-medal-winning goal against Canada in overtime.

Megan Keller

Age: 29
Hometown: Farmington Hills, Michigan
Most Recent Team: Boston Fleet

Road to Glory: After becoming a three-time All-America at Boston College, Keller then played in the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association, a precursor to the PWHL.

Hilary Knight

Age: 36
Hometown: Sun Valley, Idaho
Most Recent Team: Seattle Torrent

Road to Glory: Knight is still going strong. The five-time Olympian, who helped lead Team USA to gold in 2018, Knight leads the PWHL in scoring this season. This has been an eventful Games for Knight off the ice, too, as she got engaged to U.S. speedskater Brittany Bowe before the gold medal game.

Ava McNaughton

Age: 21
Hometown: Seven Fields, Pennsylvania
Most Recent Team: University of Wisconsin

Road to Glory: McNaughton was inspired to start playing hockey by the 2010 U.S. women’s team that won gold at the Vancouver Games. Now a goalie at Wisconsin, she backstopped a pair of national-title-winning teams for the Badgers.

Abbey Murphy

Age: 24
Hometown: Evergreen Park, Illinois
Most Recent Team: University of Minnesota

Road to Glory: Murphy is from the Chicago area and despite still being in college is marking her second Olympic stint for Team USA. She is the Gophers’ all-time leader in goals scored.

Kelly Pannek

Age: 30
Hometown: Plymouth, Minnesota
Most Recent Team: Minnesota Frost

Road to Glory: Like many of her teammates, Minnesota-native Pannek has amassed quite the trophy case: two national titles at the University of Minnesota, two Walter Cups for the Frost in the PWHL and two Olympic medals — one gold, one silver — for Team USA.

Gwyenth Philips

Age: 25
Hometown: Athens, Ohio
Most Recent Team: Ottawa Charge

Road to Glory: Phillips went to prep school in Pittsburgh before playing goalie at Northeastern, where she finished as the NCAA’s all-time leader in save percentage. She has carried that brick-wall mentality into Milan, where she has contributed to two shutouts, stopping 26 shots overall.

Hayley Scamurra

Age: 31
Hometown: Buffalo, New York
Most Recent Team: Montreal Victoire

Road to Glory: Her father, Peter, played for the Washington Capitals, and Hayley started her own hockey career at age 3. By seven, she had decided she wanted to play for the U.S. in the Olympics, a goal she has achieved despite not being invited to USA Hockey Development Camps before or during college, where she starred at Northeastern.

Kirsten Simms

Age: 21
Hometown: Plymouth, Michigan
Most Recent Team: University of Wisconsin

Road to Glory: Simms is a legend at Wisconsin, where she was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2025 NCAA tournament for scoring the game-tying goal with 18 seconds remaining in the title game and then the game-winner in overtime.

Lee Stecklein

Age: 31
Hometown: Roseville, Minnesota
Most Recent Team: Minnesota Frost

Road to Glory: Her mother, Linda, played soccer at Wisconsin and her brother, Ross, played hockey at St. John’s University. Lee won three national titles at Minnesota two PWHL titles with the Frost and helped the U.S. win eight world championships.

Haley Winn

Age: 22
Hometown: Rochester, New York
Most Recent Team: Boston Fleet

Road to Glory: A native of upstate New York, Winn starred at Clarkson University before becoming the No. 2 pick in the 2025 PWHL draft.

Grace Zumwinkle

Age: 26
Hometown: Excelsior, Minnesota
Most Recent Team: Minnesota Frost

Road to Glory: Another member of the two Frost title teams, Zumwinkle was named PWHL Rookie of the Year in 2024 and recorded the first hat trick in league history.