Teams go into the deep end of the Olympic absence period

On the Jan. 28, 2026, edition of the PodKaz, hosts Nicole Haase and Todd Milewski from USCHO.com dig into what it'll mean for some teams to lose players to the Olympics starting this week and reflect on last week's results.It was a big weekend for Northeastern, which moved up three spots to fifth in the NCAA Power Index by sweeping UConn on the road. The Huskies have opened up a 12-point lead in the race for the Hockey East title.Harvard won the Beanpot last Tuesday with a Carla McSweeney penalty shot goal in overtime against Boston University. And Penn State sent a message with a 5-1 win at Cornell.Princeton's winning streak ended at 13 games with a loss to the Big Red, then the Tigers lost in overtime to Colgate despite overcoming a two-goal deficit.St. Thomas put a scare into Ohio State before the Buckeyes won in overtime last Friday. Minnesota Duluth's Ève Gascon stopped all 45 shots she faced in a series against Minnesota State, plus three more in a shootout. And Abbey Murphy scored three more goals in a Minnesota series sweep against St. Cloud State, giving her 36 for the season.But now Murphy and other NCAA stars will be missing for a month for the Olympics. The scaled-back Gophers get a test right away by hosting scaled-back Wisconsin, with a combined nine players off the teams' rosters. We talk about how teams will feel the impact of the absences.The PodKaz is a production of USCHO.com. Have a question for us? Reach out to Nicole (@NicoleHaase) or Todd (@ToddMilewski) on social media or email [email protected].