The border battle looked a little different this weekend. The Gophers were without four of their Olympic athletes, including graduate student Abbey Murphy while the University of Wisconsin faced the same conflict without their five Olympians.

The result was still a thrilling overtime win, followed by a rough game two blow out.

Standout Performances

The Gophers got on board first when senior Sydney Morrow scored on a rebound. They held their lead mid-way through the second thanks to the efforts of sophomore goaltender Hannah Clark. Clark finished the evening with 25 saves. Though in a period of five minutes, the Gophers defense fell apart, unable to get the puck out of their zone while Clark was shelled by shots from the Badgers.

She held strong but Badgers captain, Lacey Eden, was able to beat her. A minute later Finley McCarthy got one through as well, leaving the Gophers to trail 2-1 by the end of the period.

In the third period, the Gophers fought back with freshman Avery Hovland eventually getting the tying goal.

“There were over 3,000 people here in the stands,” head coach Brad Frost said, “Just hearing the crowd go crazy when Avery Hovland tied it up was amazing.”

Game Changer

The battle between the two teams continued, and with less than two minutes remaining, Badger’s Cassie Hall got sent to the box for tripping, giving the Gophers an advantage.

The Badgers killed the penalty in the remaining regulation time and the first 30 seconds of overtime. Clark was then challenged by a breakaway opportunity from Hall. Clark made the save as the arena erupted and the Gophers took it the other way. Molly Jordan had the game winning snipe to end it.

“We’re really proud of our group, the way they stepped up, competed with one another, and stayed with it,” Frost said.

Game Two Struggles

On Saturday, the Gophers turned to freshman Layla Hemp in the net. The Badgers kicked off the scoring early with a goal from Hall a minute and a half into the game on the power play.

Eight minutes later, the Gophers went back to the penalty kill. The Gophers successfully killed the penalty and even generated a few chances of their own. However, after the penalty expired, the Badgers spent some extended time in the Gopher zone and Vivian Jungels was able to capitalize, making it 2-0 for Wisconsin.

“To Wisconsin’s credit, they jumped out to an early lead and put us on our heels,” Frost said.

Shortly after, the Badgers developed a 2-on-1, which Kelly Gorbatenko set Hall up for her second of the game. Minnesota removed Hemp from the net and brought Hannah Clark in to relieve her.

The Badgers added three more in the second, from Maggie Scannell, Jungles and Hall for the hat trick. The Gophers trailed 6-0 to end the second.

Chloe Primerano broke open Minnesota’s scoring in the third with a snipe from the blue line. Their play throughout the period significantly improved with better net-front play and offensive pressure. Their defensive efforts improved as well with a successful penalty kill in the middle of the third.

Unfortunately their efforts wouldn’t be enough and they’d drop the second game 6-1. It was a rough first two periods, but they ended with some positive takeaways in the third.

“Certaintly not the result we were hoping for,” said Frost. “We won the third, but obviously that’s not a moral victory. That’s a fact. We have to do more, we have to stay in games earlier against a really good team like that to give ourselves a chance to win at the end.”

What’s Next

The Gophers will play their next series against the University of St. Thomas with two afternoon games on Friday and Saturday.