Kessel seems to have jolted the already-streaking Gophers.
“It’s great for women’s hockey, it really is,” Frost said. She started practicing about a month ago and got the final OK from the Gophers athletic staff to return to game action this week.įrost said the return of Kessel brought what he felt was the best crowd of the year at Ridder Arena and the largest media presence. “I always had it in the back of my head that there was potential,” Frost said. Really just getting to the point where I could fully exert myself after not being able to do that for two years, that was really the treatment that helped me.”Īround January, Frost said he thought it was about 50-50 that Kessel would return. The treatment for concussions is you just kind of attack them and get back out there and you exert yourself.
“It’s just physical activity,” Kessel said. That was when Kessel met with doctors who told her she was going to be OK and she was going to play hockey again. team.įrost announced the Madison, Wis., native’s collegiate career was over this summer, but the possibility for a different outcome developed in August. She missed the 2014-15 season as she dealt with lingering concussion symptoms from a head injury suffered during her time with the U.S. Kessel, 24, redshirted during the 2013-14 season while she was playing with the U.S. Kessel was named the Patty Kazmaier Award winner that season, given to the top player in the country, when she totaled 46 goals and 55 assists. That assist was good for Kessel’s first point in a Gophers uniform since the 2013 NCAA championship game, when she had two goals and two assists as Minnesota beat Boston 6-3 for its second straight title. I felt great being able to get in corners and get hit and stuff like that.” “If I was going to get back to playing, I was going to be 100 percent healthy and be able to get in there. She said she has no reservations on the ice. Cameranesi found Hannah Brandt in front of the net, and Brandt buried the game’s first goal as Kessel earned the second assist.įrost said it was good for Kessel to get “roughed up” a bit, adding she saw far more contact than she had in the past few weeks of practice. Kessel jammed away at the puck near the net on the power play until it found its way to the stick of Dani Cameranesi. 3-ranked Minnesota (25-3-0) took advantage.
Kessel drew a penalty in the first period when she was checked, and No. “It was not 100 percent my game shape,” she said, “but I think I went in there expecting that and just trying to have fun and helping the team in any way I could get to a win.”
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