MINNEAPOLIS — On the second shift of her first hockey game in almost two years, University of Minnesota right wing Amanda Kessel collided twice with North Dakota players and fell to the ice. Both times, she picked herself up and jumped back into the play.
On the bench, Golden Gophers Coach Brad Frost relaxed a little.
Lingering post-concussion symptoms had kept Kessel, the 2013 Patty Kazmaier Award winner as college hockey’s top female player, off the ice and out of the public eye since the gold medal game of the Sochi Olympics on Feb. 20, 2014.