Gophers defender Maggie Nicholson, right, battled for he puck against Wisconsin earlier this season on Oct. 18 at Ridder Arena. (Ayrton Breckenridge/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The fourth-ranked Gophers women’s hockey team has played five months to possibly play one more, if it can bring it all back home to the Frozen Four at Ridder Arena.

The road there begins with Friday’s WCHA first-round, best-of-three playoff series against Minnesota State. The winners of this weekend’s four first-round series advance to next week’s WCHA Final Faceoff in Duluth, with an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament at stake.

On March 21 and 23, the Gophers will host their seventh NCAA Women’s Frozen Four and the fifth at Ridder but the first there since 2018. The Gophers haven’t won an NCAA title since winning back-to-back in 2015 and 2016, the first of the two in Minneapolis.

The Gophers won all four regular-season games against Minnesota State. This weekend is a rematch of last season’s WCHA first-round series in which the Mavericks won the opener and the Gophers won the final two.

“I think our group knows that anything can happen here come playoff time, and we’re going to need to be ready,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said. “You work so hard throughout your whole year to give yourself the best opportunity to get to the Final Faceoff.

“We know the Mavericks well. We’ve played them four times already. We know they’re a great team we’ve got to manage and shut down. You want to win the whole thing, but you’ve got some work to do first just to get there.”

The Gophers finished the regular season 25-9-1 overall and 19-8-1 in a conference that has No. 1 Wisconsin, No. 2 Ohio State and No. 6 Minnesota Duluth among the nation’s six top-ranked teams.

The Gophers lost four consecutive games earlier this month, defeated once by the Buckeyes, twice decidedly by the Badgers and once by St. Cloud State. The Gophers now have won three consecutive games entering the playoffs after defeating the Huskies in the series rematch and sweeping the Bulldogs.

“We’re happy with where we are,” Frost said. “I like how we’ve played here in our last three games, in particular. The exciting things are still ahead. It’s hard to take those last five months and say those didn’t really matter. But it does. That’s the exciting thing about the playoffs.”

These Gophers swept UMD last week starting with a Friday night in which senior forward and second-leading goal scorer Natalie Mlynkova returned from injury just in time for the playoffs. She scored the eventual winning goal in a 3-2 victory that night.

“I think we’re in a good spot right now,” Mlynkova said. “Overall, we are more mature in our game. We are focusing on the details. We understand them more.”

“I think everyone is excited for the playoff time,” she added. “It’s a little bit different type of games. It’s a little heavier for all the teams. We’re very excited for it and I can’t wait to get started.”