The Wisconsin men's hockey team gained one player, Ross Carlson, back from an injury sustained a month ago against North Dakota. UW may be close to having its other injured forward back in the near future.

According to UW head coach Mike Eaves, there's a chance Jack Skille may be able to join the No. 7 Badgers (4-6-2, 3-4-1 WCHA) on the ice this weekend against Minnesota (8-1-2, 4-0-2). Skille would certainly be a shot in the arm for a struggling Wisconsin team ready to take on the No. 2 team in the country on the road.

"I wouldn't say [Skille's] definitely out," Eaves said Monday at his weekly press conference. "He's going to start shooting this week, that's where the doctors are at, so he can start putting torque on that joint, and then we'll go from there. [We need to know] how does that make his joint feel … can we accelerate, or do we just need to go day-by-day.

"The shooting is the next good step for him, and that will determine his next step."

After sustaining an elbow injury in UW's home opener against the Fighting Sioux, Skille has made steady progress in returning to an offense that has floundered of late. But Eaves knows to take caution when dealing with such a sensitive injury.

"You're dealing with a joint," Eaves said. "Not only for our sake, but for Jack's future, we want to make sure that thing is solid."

Davies takes charge

Eaves spoke of the difficulty for first-year players to adjust to the intensity of college hockey after excelling in the juniors or in other amateur leagues. The fifth-year coach used Skille as an example, who came to the Badgers a year ago after playing 30 games against collegiate opponents while in USA Hockey's National Development Team program.

"It still took [Skille] until after Christmastime [in 2005] to find his stride, to find his confidence," Eaves said. "I think, as a goal scorer, you come in, you think, 'I've scored, I should be able to score right away.' It's another gear; it's another speed level; it's another strength level; and they have to adapt to that."

Playing on the first line in place of Skille, right wing Michael Davies has answered the bell in his first year with the Badgers, with his latest accomplishment coming last weekend with a goal and assist in Saturday's failed comeback against Denver.

"I think we saw a little bit about Mike Davies recognizing some of that, and he stepped up, he went to another gear this past weekend against a pretty good team," Eaves said.

While Davies is tied for second on Wisconsin with six points, Eaves is confident his other talented freshmen are close to coming into their own, playing in the tough WCHA conference.

"I think that we see that Mike, it's starting to come for him," Eaves said. "I think that will start to come for some of our other young men as well."

One of those impressive freshmen, John Mitchell, was a big part of getting some momentum back for the struggling Badgers, when on Saturday night he reeled off an end-to-end skate and knocked in a top-shelf shot over sprawling Denver goaltender Peter Mannino, tying the game at three.

Eaves said Mitchell has to work on his strength and conditioning before emerging into the scoring threat he can become, after dealing with a "bumpy road" in junior hockey.

"He had some scoring opportunities early with us, and he finally got his first goal, and I'm hoping that opens some floodgates for him because he has created and been a part of a lot of scoring chances," Eaves said. "If he can continue to bloom, that would be a real nice thing for this club."

Eaves highlighted the long-term significance of Mitchell notching his first goal on such a fine scoring play.

"Those are the kind of goals, when he tells his grandchildren about his first goal, he really did score upstairs on a goaltender," Eaves said. "It wasn't a shot that went five-hole and barely got across the goal line, so he's one of the rare people that can [say] that."

Great effort

After being visually disappointed with his team's offensive output after Friday's shutout loss, Eaves was much more pleased with Wisconsin's 42-shot night on Saturday. He even used NHL great Wayne Gretzky's quote, "You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take," to illustrate his team's improvement from the series opener to the finale.

"Forty-two shots is a great step in the right direction," Eaves said. "Now that we're getting the puck to the net, we're driving to the net better. We're doing some things that are going to increase our percentage on scoring."

Saturday, Eaves commented that he thought UW played well enough to win the second match, and game film confirmed his belief.

"I watched that game yesterday at home, and in some cases, I can't believe we lost that game because we did so many good things," Eaves said. "Sometimes, that's the way of sport, but we will move forward knowing if we play that way and when we play that way again, we're going to win some hockey games with this group of boys."