Wisconsin Badgers hockey teams winning despite injuries
Success is not the only thing uniting the men's and women's Wisconsin Badgers hockey teams this season
Madison, WI – Both Wisconsin Badgers hockey teams are off to hot starts. Inside the Kohl Center, the men are putting together one of their best starts of the modern era. Down the hall inside LaBahn Arena, the women remain the unanimous top-ranked team in the country after a split with the No. 2 Minnesota Golden Gophers. Beyond their shared success, these Badgers are united by injury concerns.
No. 10/9 Wisconsin men’s hockey (6-0-2, 2-0 Big Ten) was without two of its NHL Draft picks throughout the night on Saturday and saw a third briefly exit the series finale against Minnesota. With a trip to face No. 2 Michigan in Ann Arbor on the schedule this weekend, UW will need to be at full strength to knock off the Wolverines.
Before Wisconsin women’s hockey (11-1-0, 7-1-0 WCHA) began its series last weekend against its Border Battle rival, it got, seemingly for the first time all season, a bit of positive injury news. Reigning first-team All-Americans Laila Edwards and Kirsten Simms returned to the lineup after missing games with lower-body injuries. During UW’s bye week, the duo will try to help Team USA grab a pair of wins over Canada in the Rivalry Series, while some other bruised Badgers recover.
“We need to get healthy,” Badgers women’s hockey head coach Mark Johnson said after a 7-2 victory over Minnesota. “And get everybody in for a chunk of practices and get back to where I think we can get to go.”
Badgers men’s hockey forward ‘progressing’ toward return
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Of the three players Wisconsin was missing at various points during Saturday’s matchup. Logan Hensler did not play at all, Vasily Zelenov briefly exited but returned, and Kyle Kukkonen suffered an injury midway through the game that ended his night.
The first, Hensler, has the highest NHL Draft pedigree but less long-term injury concern. The Ottawa Senators’ first-round selection was out of the lineup due to illness. Head coach Mike Hastings theorized that the defenseman had the flu.
Freshman center Zelenov missed a portion of the first period on Saturday after he went back to the locker room with an athletic trainer. The Buffalo Sabres’ prospect returned after the first intermission and turned in a standout night at the faceoff dot, winning eight of ten draws. Hastings said in a Tuesday press conference that Zelenov is “full go.”
Midway through the second period, Zelenov’s linemate, Kukkonen, skated off the ice inside the Kohl Center and did not return. Hastings said in a post-game interview that the senior is nursing an “upper-body” injury.
The Anaheim Ducks prospect was unable to return on Saturday as Wisconsin closed out its first sweep of Minnesota inside the Kohl Center since 2014. On Tuesday, Hastings indicated that Kukkonen had turned a corner. He skated in that morning’s practice and is “progressing in a really good way,” Hastings said of the Maple Grove, Minnesota native’s status. Adding that he is “in a good spot, also, to be available” against the Wolverines.
The third-year Wisconsin head coach closed the press conference saying, “Other than that, I think we’re good.”
Wisconsin women’s hockey using off week ‘to try to get healthy’
Rather than some Xs and Os miscues throughout the weekend, Johnson said his most significant focus of his team’s break for international competition is the need “to get healthy,” as he tries to cobble together the pieces of “a mash unit” of available players.
“I mean, so, we keep putting the puzzle–get it togther, it looks pretty good. And then, all of the sudden, take that piece, take that piece, and put it back together. Oh, okay, it’s looking good again,” the winningest coach in the history of NCAA Division I women’s ice hockey said, describing his struggles in a lineup that has lacked consistency.
Although Johnson had Edwards and Simms return, he remains without another pair of key contributors. Plus, another three players shuffled in and out of the lineup against Minnesota.
UW’s injured blue liners
Ava Murphy was out of the lineup on Saturday despite playing on Friday night. Johnson said he does “not know a lot about” Murphy’s status but he hoped to “get a better feel early in the week” about the defender’s availability moving forward.
With fellow blue liner Laney Potter out of the lineup due to a lower-body injury, Wisconsin was short on defenders in the series finale against the Gophers. Before a third-period collision with Minnesota State Mavericks winger Mercury Bischoff put Potter out of the lineup, the junior had tied her career-high four goals in a season through just nine games.
“I think Potter’s in a good position,” Johnson said of his budding two-way standout defender. “Hopefully, we get her on the ice, you know, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. You get some good practices in. And then, you know, obviously, you got a game week coming up the following week, so. But she’s come along well.”
Wisconsin’s stitched and bruised forwards
In the first period of Wisconsin’s series finale against the Golden Gophers, Maggie Scannell exited the ice after a puck ricocheted underneath her helmet cage. The sophomore had already scored a goal just 14 seconds after the game had begun, but then “ended up getting stitched up and back out” after the first intermission, “and played really well,” adding an assist on Caroline Harvey’s third-period goal.
“Even though, you know, not a lot of times these kids get cut, you know?” said Johnson. “They’ve got face masks on, and all of the sudden she takes, you know, a puck up here and the next thing you know she’s at the end of the bench and they’re trying to get it to stop bleeding.”
Cassie Hall struggled getting off the ice near the end of the second period. The junior, who has scored a team-high 11 goals in 12 games for the Badgers, blocked a shot from Gophers defender Sydney Morrow, but the puck hit in a break in Hall’s padding.
Hall returned for the third period to tally a pair of assists, but “she’s gonna be sore now!” Johnson exclaimed after the game.
Johnson did not offer any specific updates on rookie center Adéla Šapovalivová. He did, however, say, through a bit of laughter, showcasing his typically dry sense of humor, that Šapovalivová, Potter, and Murphy would “be back soon... now you give me Webster’s definition of ‘soon’ and we can connect better.”
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