Gophers women's hockey beats Wisconsin 4-2, will face Ohio State in WCHA final

Abbey Murphy sat and stewed in the penalty box during the Gophers' semifinal game against Wisconsin in the WCHA Final Faceoff on Friday. And when her second-period slashing penalty led to the Badgers scoring the tying goal, her mood didn't get any better.

"Yeah, it's not fun. Frosty actually yelled at me — you can ask him,'' the sophomore forward said of her coach, Brad Frost. "[The penalty] doesn't help the team a lot, but putting the puck in the net afterwards definitely makes it a lot better.''

Murphy atoned in a big way for her mistake, giving her team the lead for good on a third-period power play as the Gophers defeated Wisconsin 4-2 in front of 2,334 at Ridder Arena. Catie Skaja's empty-net goal with 1 minute, 19 seconds to play sealed Minnesota's victory over its border rival.

The second-seeded Gophers (28-5-3) will play No. 1 seed Ohio State at 2 p.m. Saturday for the WCHA tournament championship. The Buckeyes (31-4-2) advanced with a 2-1 win over Minnesota Duluth, and all four teams in the Final Faceoff are expected to make the NCAA tournament, whose field will be announced at 11 a.m. Sunday on ESPNews.

"That was a fun, entertaining game, as you would imagine when two of the top teams in the country are playing,'' said Frost, whose team will try to win its first WCHA tournament title since 2018.

Madison Kaiser and Madeline Wethington also scored for the Gophers. Goalie Skylar Vetter secured the victory by making 23 saves, including two breakaway stops in the third period.

"We definitely had to play on our toes and weather the storm,'' Wethington said.

Casey O'Brien and Nicole LaMantia scored for Wisconsin (25-10-2), which got 28 saves from Cami Kronish.

The Gophers beat Wisconsin for the first time in regulation in 2022-23, after going 0-2-2 against the Badgers in regular-season play. "We knew it was time,'' Murphy said.

The game's key sequence came in the third period with the Gophers on their first power play. Grace Zumwinkle fired a hard shot from the high slot, and Skaja's backhanded rebound attempt hit the post. Murphy was there, though, to emphatically slam home the rebound for a 3-2 lead at 3:43.

That balanced out her slashing penalty a period earlier that led to Wisconsin tying the score 2-2 on LaMantia's goal. With 27 goals and 21 assists this season, Murphy, a 2022 U.S. Olympian, supplies scoring and grit. Sometimes, Frost has to rein in the sandpaper.

"It just seems that when she's in the box, it ends up in our net a lot of the time, and she's just so much better when she's on the ice for us," Frost said. "And so, a good little chat. But she uses it to be better and to motivate herself. She does not want to let her team down.''

Murphy took Friday's lesson to heart and looked ahead to playing for the tournament title.

"We're so excited,'' she said. "And we can't wait for it. It's just a test for our team.''

No. 1 seed Ohio State 2, No. 4 Minnesota Duluth 1: Brooke Bink and Emma Maltais scored goals 58 seconds apart in the second period, and the Buckeyes held on to beat the Bulldogs (25-9-3). Nina Jobst-Smith scored an extra-attacker goal late in the third for UMD.