Joel Stave’s season was ended Oct. 29 after he broke his left collarbone. That same day, Josh Gasser tore his ACL in practice, effectively ending his 2012-13 campaign before it even began.

The worst of it seemed over. But the injury bug had one more stop to make.

One week later, Nov. 3, junior center Mark Zengerle went to block a shot on a penalty kill early in the second period. In the process of blocking the slap shot from the blue line, Zengerle broke his left index finger and will miss the next four to six weeks of the season.

The Rochester, N.Y., native wasn’t simply Wisconsin’s leading returning scorer with 50 points on 13 goals and 37 assists – he was the top scorer in the nation to return to college hockey for the 2012-13 season.

In his post game press conference, head coach Mike Eaves didn’t mince words about the effect Zengerle’s injury will have.

“It just makes it more difficult,” Eaves said. “If you want to make a blanket statement, it just makes it more difficult for us to score goals than it has been.”

Through six games, Zengerle recorded a point in every game until his injury with two goals and four assists. But Zengerle was more than just a point machine to the Badgers.

“He controls the whole game,” junior forward Tyler Barnes said, who has played on the same line as Zengerle throughout most of his career at UW. “Offensively, he’s able to slow the play down and really read what they’re doing. He’s solid down low defensively, being our top centerman. He’ll kill penalties, he’ll do the power play – he’s a complete player. You’ll feel him in pretty much every aspect of the game.”

“Mark’s also a leader on the team,” senior forward Derek Lee said. “He doesn’t have a letter on his jersey but definitely in that locker room he’s got a presence. The guys all know he’s our top guy.”

With Zengerle out, the Badgers face the task of getting the offense going without him. In order to accomplish this task, Eaves needs to find the right mix of skaters.

After leaving the ice Saturday, Lee moved up to center the top line with Barnes and Michael Mersch on his wings. With a bye week to work on it, Eaves already believes he’s found the right lines with junior Jefferson Dahl replacing Zengerle on the top line between Barnes and sophomore Joseph LaBate.

Lee will continue to center the second line with Mersch on his left wing and freshman Morgan Zulinick on his right wing. Granted, these are subject to change with a week and half left until Wisconsin travels to Minnesota in its next WCHA matchup.

“Right away I wanted to know if Coach (Gary) Shuchuk had any eligibility left,” Eaves joked. “… Now what we’re trying to do is just bring some balance to our lines. I mean with Mark (Zengerle) in there, obviously he’s going to bring a more offensive flair, so you’ve got to look at balance and mixing it up a little bit. And that’s what we’ve done this week, we’ve tried different looks with our lines.”

No matter what the lines end up looking like come Nov. 16, there is a general sense of the need to step up, but the players aren’t feeling much added pressure.

If anything, Zengerle’s disappearance from the line chart only throws their responsibilities as goal scorers into greater relief.

“I always feel, not bad pressure, but pressure to help this team score goals,” Mersch said. “I’ve had a few good seasons where I’ve put the puck in the back of the net and I expect that from myself. It’s not so much the outside pressure, but pressure from myself.

“I guess I’m going to have to take over some of Mark’s responsibility and put that on myself to help this team win some games.”

Lee, a center – who also coincidentally suffered a hand injury last year – felt his responsibilities haven’t changed with Zengerle gone.

“It’s the same pressure that was on me before,” the North Vancouver, B.C., native said. “That’s kind of the way I’m supposed to play, to do that, and with Mark in the line up or out, I think my role stays the same … there’s no added pressure. I think it’s going to take a few more guys, myself included, to step up here in his absence.”

As the team works to make their offense function on the same level without him, Zengerle faces a tough stretch of time away from the ice. Mersch, who lives with the injured forward, noted how he’ll miss playing without his good friend and even joked about helping him recover.

“We’ve kind of looked at the schedule to figure out what games he’s going to be back for and what games he’s going to miss,” Mersch said. “He’s disappointed, we’re all disappointed – not just our roommates, our whole team. But I’m helping him out, feeding him his food a little bit – no, but I’m helping him out. I’m always there for him if he needs anything.”