Friday night’s national semifinal game between the No. 1 Wisconsin Badgers (37-1-2) and No. 4 Minnesota Gophers (29-12-1) lived up to its billing.
It was the sixth installment of the Border Battle in the 2024-25 season, this time on the game’s biggest stage. The environment in Minneapolis was rowdy with Minnesota hosting the Frozen Four in their home barn at Ridder Arena. Despite the home game, fanfare was pretty evenly split between Badger and Gopher fans.
The game got off to a bit of a precarious start. Minnesota came out of the gate as the more physical team, with Gopher star Abbey Murphy taking things a bit too far when she took a run at junior defender and Team U.