The Wisconsin men’s hockey team (8-5-5 WCHA, 11-8-5 overall) took another step toward the top of the WCHA conference this weekend with a sweep of conference foe Alaska-Anchorage (1-15-4, 3-16-5), but UW may have lost one of its key players in the process.
Senior center Derek Lee took a hit to the head Saturday night and left the game with an apparent head injury, though the extent of the injury is not yet known.
With the two wins, the Badgers climbed into a tie for third place in the WCHA, just four points behind conference-leading St. Cloud State—a position head coach Mike Eaves didn’t fully believe his team would be in back in November.
“I would have hoped it,” Eaves said after Friday’s 5-2 victory. “Believed it? From where we were it would have been tough to.”
The Badgers have come a long way since their 1-7-2 start, and that turnaround has not been more evident than it was on the ice Friday night.
Freshman forward Nic Kerdiles scored 1:26 into the game and Wisconsin never looked back. The Badgers controlled the pace of the game from start to finish, outshooting the Seawolves 37-14 and converting on two of their three power plays.
Wisconsin has struggled mightily with the man advantage this season, converting just 6-of-66 attempts prior to this weekend. Eaves tried flip-flopping centers on the lines, switching junior Mark Zengerle and Lee, and it paid immediate dividends.
Junior forward Michael Mersch scored both of the team’s power play goals, giving him 15 goals on the season, which is tied for second most in the country.
“One thing is that [Alaska-Anchorage] weren’t able to pre-scout that, so that was a different look.” Mersch said of the team’s power play. “And then we just kind of let things happen, let things play out. It wasn’t really a set play—we were moving around a lot, which is really helpful, and they couldn’t keep up with us.”
Saturday’s game had a much different feel than the previous night’s, as both teams got off to sloppy starts. The Badgers did not record a shot on goal until over halfway through the first and totaled only three in the period.
“It definitely wasn’t how we wanted to start the game,” junior forward Jefferson Dahl said. “That first period was pretty ugly. But, I like how we responded in the second and third and we somehow found a way to solve the riddle and get it done tonight.”
Dahl and fellow junior forward Tyler Barnes got the goals for Wisconsin, but the biggest story from Saturday night was the loss of Lee. Midway through the second period Lee was checked in the head by an Alaska-Anchorage player and immediately dropped to the ice. He eventually made his way to the bench and later the locker room.
If Lee is forced to miss time, it will be a major blow to the Wisconsin offense. Lee was in the midst of his best offensive year, with a career-high 19 points through 22 games. Just last season, he was forced to sit out for a significant period with a concussion.
Dahl took over for Lee after he exited the game, centering Barnes and Kerdiles, and recorded a goal and an assist on the night. It is likely that he will stay in that role if Lee is forced to miss some time.
“Well, they did a pretty nice job,” Eaves said of the Kerdiles-Dahl-Barnes line. “I think we’d have to sit back and take a closer look at what we might do in the absence of Mr. Lee, but tonight they had a little chemistry.”
