Harvey's OT heroics lead Badgers past Gophers and into national title game

DULUTH — The hype before Friday's Minnesota-Wisconsin matchup was palpable.

National semifinal. Border battle.

It delivered.

Trailing in the third period, Wisconsin roared back with two goals in 53 seconds to take the lead and — after Minnesota forced overtime — Caroline Harvey's wrister 16:47 into the extra frame sealed the Badgers' 10th trip to the national title game with a 3-2 win at Amsoil Arena.

"Honestly, I blacked out. It was pretty crazy," Harvey said.

With wins already in the NCAA tournament over No. 2 seed Minnesota and No. 3 seed Colgate, the unseeded Badgers will play top-seeded Ohio State — the reigning, defending champions — on Sunday for a chance at their seventh national title.

"We're happy to be playing in the last game," Wisconsin head coach Mark Johnson said, "look forward to the day off tomorrow and get the laces tied up and go out with Sunday."

Clint Austin / Duluth News Tribune

Down 2-1, the Gophers found an equalizer with 71 seconds left in regulation when Madeline Wethington's shot from the point found a way past Wisconsin goalie Cami Kronish to send the game to overtime.

"I think it just shows the resilience of our group," Minnesota fifth-year senior Grace Zumwinkle said. "It was going to be a back-and-forth game from the beginning of the night."

Still, Minnesota's first Frozen Four trip since 2019 ended short of the team's goal.

"It's an occupational hazard that when you get under the bright lights, one team's gonna lose and one team's gonna win," Minnesota head coach Brad Frost said. "Unfortunately, we were on the wrong end of it tonight."

Minnesota played the Badgers close all season, but it wasn't until their fifth meeting of the year — two weeks ago in the WCHA Final Faceoff semifinal — that the Gophers broke through with an official win. Wisconsin avenged that loss, its only non-shootout defeat against Minnesota this season, on Friday.

"Six times we've played each other and most of the games have been like that," Johnson said.

"It comes down to somebody making a play," he added.

WISCONSIN 0-0-2-1—3

MINNESOTA 1-0-1-0—2

FIRST PERIOD: 1, MINN, Heise (Oden), 3:23.

SECOND PERIOD: No scoring.

THIRD PERIOD: 2, WIS, L. Edwards (Compher), 6:32. 3, 7:25, WIS, Shirley (Wheeler), 7:25. 4, MINN, Zumwinkle (Wethington, Heise), 18:49.

OVERTIME: 5, WIS, Harvey (Compher, Curl), 16:47.

SHOTS: WIS, 6-17-8-7—38. MINN, 9-7-13-10—39

SAVES: WIS, Kronish (8-7-12-10—37). MINN, Vetter (6-17-6-6—35)

Clint Austin / Duluth News Tribune