Despite a 29-12 season, Minnesota’s women’s hockey team lost 6-2 against the Wisconsin Badgers during the NCAA Frozen Four semifinals.
Every single time the border rivals met on the ice this season, the Gophers lost. At the end of the 2024-2025 season, Minnesota was 0-6 against Wisconsin. While the game was held at Minnesota’s Ridder Arena, Wisconsin was the higher seed.
The game started off strong with both teams clearly putting up a fight to move on to the finals. Gophers goalie Hannah Clark made multiple saves in the early minutes of the period.
Around five and half minutes into the game, Gophers forward Abbey Murphy was given a five-minute major penalty due to a high elbowing hit on a Wisconsin player. This put the Badgers into the first powerplay of the game.
Despite the one-player advantage, the Gophers were able to hold off the Badgers powerplay. Using that momentum of being back at full strength, Minnesota forward Peyton Hemp was able to score the first goal of the game around 14 minutes in.
Minnesota head coach Brad Frost said the combination of squashing a powerplay and then getting the first goal led to a burst of energy for the Gophers.
“It gave our team a lot of juice, killing that thing off and then scoring right after it,” Frost said. “It gave us actually a lot of momentum.”
However, the Badgers quickly fought back. Despite the Gophers having a power play, Badgers forward Laila Edwards was still able to score the team’s first goal of the game.
The first period ended 1-1 as both teams went back to the locker room with the drive to dominate.
The second period started off fast as the Badgers scored a goal around three minutes in, pulling them ahead of the Gophers 2-1. The Gophers made a few attempts on goal but none were successful.
Around 10 minutes in, the Badgers scored another goal against Clark, bringing them to a two-point lead. The Gophers quickly closed the gap.
A few seconds after the Badgers’ second goal of the period Gophers forward Josefin Bouveng scored a goal making the game 3-2.
Both teams did not utilize the power plays given to them throughout the second period, but with only two seconds left the Badgers were able to score another goal.
Both Minnesota and Wisconsin had players in the penalty box leading to a four-on-four on the ice. A Minnesota player went down by the Wisconsin goal, her teammate stopped to check in on her.
This led to Wisconsin forward Casey O’Brien only being contended by two players and scoring the Badgers’ final goal of the period. Wisconsin’s lead was up to 4-2, the start of the end for the Gophers.
The third period had a slow start as both teams showed strong offensive and defensive plays. However, around four and a half minutes in, Edwards made her second goal of the game and furthered the gap between the Badgers and Gophers.
Despite having a power play around 12 minutes in, the Gophers were still not able to score another goal. With three minutes left in the game, Minnesota decided to take Clark out to give them a one-woman advantage.
Even with the advantage, the Badgers scored an empty net goal to finish off the game. Edwards scored her third goal of the game and led the Badgers to victory over the Gophers 6-2.
Edwards’ hat trick also led her to overtake Murphy in total number of goals this season in the NCAA. Since Friday, Edwards has 34 goals while Murphy has 33.
Despite the disappointing loss, Frost said he is still proud of his team and what they have accomplished this season.
“I love this team and the individuals on it,” Frost said. “I’m really proud of how they came together this year, played for one another and left it out there tonight.”
