A pair of road wins over the St. Lawrence Saints to open the Wisconsin women’s hockey season had their fair share of drama. Eleven players making their Wisconsin Badgers (2-0-0, 0-0-0 WCHA) game-day debut, an early 0-2 deficit, and an injury that sidelined UW’s standout starting goaltender.
In the second period of a game knotted at two goals apiece, Ava McNaughton suffered an apparent lower-body injury in Friday’s season-opener. She fell to the ice after a collision with Saints forward Barbora Jurícková. McNaughton appeared to reach toward her right leg as she laid on the ice for roughly two minutes before being helped to the bench by an athletic trainer.
The Olympian did not return to the ice on Friday and did not dress for Saturday’s series finale. On Tuesday, Associate Head Coach Dan Koch provided an update on McNaughton’s status.
Wisconsin women’s hockey goaltender Ava McNaughton injury status
McNaughton appeared to fully participate in a practice open to the media on Tuesday morning. Afterwards, Koch said his team’s starter “has been out there in practice all week.”
“Ava’s doing great. Ava wanted to play on Saturday,” he added. “You know, whenever you tweak something, you never know the severity of it. I think. There’s a little bit of shock that happens, but once she was able to wake up the next morning, not have any swelling and seem to have some more movement.”
The positive news for McNaughton should put Badgers fans, who are used to seeing the 6-foot senior mind UW’s net. McNaughton missed eight games at Wisconsin last season to compete with Team USA at the Winter Olympic Games. Before that break, she had started 70 of the Badgers’ previous 73 contests dating back to her rookie season.
Koch mentioned the two-time national champion’s competitiveness and that the strength in the area area McNaughton injured “wasn’t quite at 100%, but she felt like she could have gone on Saturday if we needed her.”
Wisconsin Badgers coach says Rhyah Stewart will ‘have more opportunities’
Giving a look behind the curtain into the minds of the Wisconsin Badgers coaching staff, Koch noted his team was prepared to give the start in net on Saturday to backup goaltender Rhyah Stewart regardless of McNaughton’s status.
“Going into the weekend, we thought we would give her the Saturday night start,” Koch said of his team’s plan for the sophomore. “You know, we don’t usually decide that until after we see how Friday goes, but that was kind of our plan.”
Regardless of the plan for Saturday, Stewart went into Friday night’s game off the bench and stopped all 11 shots she faced en route to a 6-2 victory.
“She got thrown into the fire a little bit quicker than we had hoped,” said Koch. “And she really came in and made some quality saves without being warm early in that match.”
She followed-up on Saturday making another 15 saves in a 6-0 victory and notching her first-career shutout.
“There were spurts where we broke down defensively, and she again came up with some really good saves,” Koch said of his team’s performance in the series finale. “Really happy that she got her first career shutout, and that’s just a testament to her and her working in the off season.”
The Antigonish, Novia Scotia native started nine games as a rookie, including all eight games McNaughton was away from the Badgers during the Olympics. Stewart posted posted a .924 save percentage with a 1.79 goals against average in her first collegiate season, amassing a 7-2 record in her nine starts and helping UW capture the WCHA regular-season title. The two losses came in series openers at the hands of the Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Ohio State Buckeyes.
That stretch gave Wisconsin’s coaching staff a lot of confidence in Stewart, and Koch says they “definitely want to get her in more games this year. She’s going to have more opportunities.”
UW appears likely to turn to Stewart for a pair of games against the St. Thomas Tommies on November 14th and 15th. Assuming McNaughton is again invited to compete with Team USA, she will likely miss that WCHA conference series as it takes place during the IIHF Women’s World Championship in Denmark. The tournament’s semifinal and medal-round games are scheduled for November 15th and 16th.
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