• Wisconsin women’s hockey forward Marianne Picard returned to the ice after a knee injury.
• Picard initially feared a career-ending ACL tear, but it was a less severe MCL injury.
• Her return provides a boost to the top-ranked Badgers, who are missing five players to the Olympics.

MADISON – Marianne Picard has torn her ACL twice, so she knew this was trouble.

That is what the instincts and the body of the senior forward for the Wisconsin women’s hockey team told her after she took a hit during the first period against St. Thomas on Jan. 16.

She felt that pain before and the news associated with it was never good.

“Lots of tears,” she said. “When I first got [hurt], I thought it was my ACL for the third time and that’s like a year-long recovery. I thought I was done for, so I cried a lot.”

But then there was hope and then a comeback.

An MRI exam revealed Picard suffered a partial MCL tear, an injury that can heal in weeks not months. From that point, the only question was how quickly could she return to the lineup.

The answer turned out to be four weeks.

Picard was back on the ice for the Badgers’ series at Minnesota State on Feb 13-14 and starred in their sweep. On Friday the 13^th she recorded her first goal of the season and got the primary assist on the game-winning goal of a 4-1 win. On Saturday she had another two-point night (one goal, one assist) in a 5-1 win over the Mavericks.

That was a four-point weekend for a player who entered the series with zero goals and 10 points this season.

The two-time national champion called her first game back one of the favorite moments of her college career.

“Oh my god, it was amazing, especially because I was so on the fence with should I medically retire or should I come back?” she said. “I’ve had two surgeries on the same knee and now I tore my MCL, so it was a tough decision, but I didn’t want my career to end with me being injured.”

Picard’s return was much needed. The Badgers, who are ranked No. 1 in the USCHO and USA Hockey polls, are without five of their top players due to the Olympics.

Her return gave Badgers coach Mark Johnson another option at center. Picard was part of the third line with wings Finley McCarthy and Charlotte Pieckenhagen.

The Minnesota State series marked the first time Johnson used that line combination. It immediately paid off as the three combined for two goals Saturday and one Friday.

Picard’s return gives the team another leader on the ice. In the wake of losing so many top players, Johnson reshaped his leadership group; Picard is an alternate captain.

She also provided some added juice. She was excited to get back on the ice and her energy showed.

“For somebody that looked like her career was over to somebody that gets an opportunity to play as quickly as she was able to do it, that brings energy because she’s excited,” Johnson said. “Not many people get that second opportunity. She got it and earned it.”

While Picard’s injury didn’t require surgery, it did necessitate a lot of work in the weight room to stabilize that area.

“It was really, really hard,” she said “I’m not going to lie. Those rehab lifts and rehab skates are harder than any game, any practice I’ve ever done. But I guess it paid off with [last] weekend.”

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Wisconsin’s Picard, McCarthy explain importance of winning the WCHA

Wisconsin’s Marianne Picard and Finley McCarthy explain why they want to win the WCHA title with five players competing in the Olympics..

It could pay off this weekend, too.

Wisconsin (27-3-2, 21-3-2 – 66 points) enters the final two games of the regular season with a two-point lead over Ohio State in the WCHA standings. Barring an Ohio State loss to last-place Bemidji State, the Badgers will need to sweep fifth-place St. Cloud State on Feb. 21-22 to claim their second straight regular-season title.

It would be a significant accomplishment for a team that lost more than any other in the country to the Olympics.

“I think that’s why we want to win so bad,” Picard said. “We call each other the B-Squad. We kind of made it when the Olympians are not there, we’re the B-Squad, and we want to win for them. We don’t want all the work that they’ve done this season to just go to shreds because they’re gone.”

GREEN BAY (WLUK) — A local nonprofit is getting a big boost in funding from the green and gold.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Wisconsin was awarded a $250,000 social justice impact grant from Green Bay Packers Give Back, officials announced Wednesday. The program creates and supports one-on-one mentoring relationships between children, known as Littles, and volunteer mentors, known as Bigs.

The grant money from Packers Give Back will go toward ongoing projects geared at creating a safe, engaging space for Bigs and Littles to meet consistently, as well as provide programming opportunities for Littles who are waiting to be matched with a Big. Most kids sit on the waiting list for at least six months because of a shortage of Bigs, the nonprofit says.

“The Green Bay Packers organization has been incredibly special to Big Brothers Big Sisters for years, not just through financial support, but through the staff members who step up as Bigs and form life-changing relationships with kids in our community,” said Monica McClure, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Wisconsin, in a news release.

As we look ahead, we’re not just asking how we deliver mentoring. We’re asking how we can deliver it better, sooner and to every child who’s waiting for a mentor. With support from the Green Bay Packers, we can expand opportunities for matches and reach the youth on our waitlist, ensuring more children get the guidance and support they need to thrive.

The social justice impact grant, combined with other Packers charitable endeavors, contributed to a comprehensive impact of more than $13 million in the past year.

The national Big Brothers Big Sisters organization has also been recognized by the NFL as part of the league’s Inspire Change social justice initiative.

Wisconsin’s population is on the rise, but the rate of growth has slowed over the past year amid a plunge in international migration to the state, according to recent estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

As of July 2025, Wisconsin had 5,972,787 residents, the Census Bureau reported Jan. 27. That’s about 15,000 residents – or about 0.26% – more than in 2024. That growth rate is nearly half what it was the year before and the lowest of the post-pandemic years so far.

Wisconsin is not alone in the trend. Nationwide population growth also slowed significantly in 2025 due to a dip in international migration. The year saw President Donald Trump begin a sweeping crackdown on immigration, which has involved everything from halting refugee programs to revoking protected status for hundreds of thousands of migrants.

In Wisconsin, the latest estimates show the number of international migrants coming to the state fell by more than 62% in 2025.

Here’s what else the Census Bureau report found.

Wisconsin’s population growth rate falls to lowest since pandemic

After several years of post-pandemic recovery, Wisconsin’s population growth in 2025 was its lowest since 2021, according to Census Bureau estimates.

The state’s 0.26% population growth rate was down from about 0.45% in 2023 and 2024, and 0.36% from 2022. Nationally, population growth halved last year, with the country’s population growing by 0.5%, or 1.8 million residents, compared to 1%, or 3.2 million residents, in 2024.

Various projections have predicted a long-term decline of Wisconsin’s population. In early 2025, the Department of Administration projected most Wisconsin counties would face a shrinking population by 2050, with an estimated statewide loss of nearly 200,000 residents.

Milwaukee County, though, defied these expectations when its population grew for the first time in a decade in 2024. The county’s population reached just under 925,000 residents as of July 1, 2024, which was up by 2,880 people, or 0.31%, from the prior year. The slight growth came after the county lost about 15,000 residents between 2020 and 2024 – the most of any Wisconsin county in that time period.

The Census Bureau has not yet released county population data for 2025.

More: Milwaukee logged lowest number of births on record in 2025, what’s behind the trend

After reaching record levels in 2024, international migration plunges

For both Wisconsin and the country, a rapid decline in international migration is driving the slowdown in population growth.

The drop comes after migration to Wisconsin reached the highest level in two decades in 2024, largely spurred by people moving to the state from other countries, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Between July 2023 and June 2024, Wisconsin saw about 19,300 international migrants and about 5,800 domestic migrants move to the state.

In contrast, between June 2024 and July 2025, the number of international migrants dropped to 7,200 – the lowest since 2020. Nationwide, the number of international migrants fell by more than 50% from 2.7 million to 1.3 million last year.

The latter half of that yearlong period saw the Trump administration start its nationwide crackdown on immigration, including in Wisconsin.

For several years, global unrest drove people to the U.S. and Wisconsin: The fall of Kabul in Afghanistan and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to a national and local influx of refugees from those countries. Biden-era sponsorship of immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela also allowed more legal immigrants, and Milwaukee in particular became a hub for Burmese refugees from Myanmar.