Trailing 2-0 halfway through the game, Wisconsin scored three goals in the last 10 minutes of the second period and four more in the third to beat the No. 3 Gophers 7-5 on Saturday in WCHA women's hockey at Ridder Arena.
The loss meant Minnesota dropped to second place in the conference behind Ohio State with only one weekend of the regular-season games left.
The Gophers (23-5-3, 20-3-3, 63 points) went into this series with a two-point edge in the standings over the Buckeyes, but tied No. 8 Wisconsin 2-2 on Friday (and lost in the shootout). Ohio State (27-3-2, 22-3-1, 66 points) beat the Tommies 5-0 on Saturday to sweep that series.
"A frustrating result," Gophers coach Brad Frost said. "Certainly not the outcome we were hoping for. We're proud of our team for coming back from a couple of goals down and having 26 shots in the third period.
"We had to press a bit and it led to a couple of odd-man rushes for them. Still a lot of hockey left and we'll regroup and be back at it next week."
Claire Enright began the rally for Wisconsin (22-8-2, 19-6-2) with an unassisted goal at 10:43 of the middle period. Laila Edwards tied the score at 2-all at 16:37 and Kirsten Simms put the Badgers ahead 3-2 with 52 seconds left in the period.
Taylor Heise had an unassisted, shorthanded goal — the ninth of her career — for the Gophers at 13:41 of the first and Catie Skaja made it 2-0 on a power-play goal at 35 seconds of the second.
The wild third period began with Simms scoring her second goal at 5:34 to make it 4-2. Goals by Abbey Murphy and Heise tied it but the Badgers got three goals in a little over two minutes, one an empty-netter, to lead 7-4.
