Reusse: Hope for a Gophers women’s hockey upset of Wisconsin is only that

Ed Murphy and Jason Hemp were standing near a rail in the narrow walkway that sits in front of Ridder Arena, the home to Gophers women’s hockey since 2002. They were among the parents there to see their daughters make the quick, smile-filled walk on a red carpet and into the arena.

Ahead of Abbey Murphy, Peyton Hemp and the other Gophers was the monumental task of facing Wisconsin in the national semifinals. The Badgers were entering with a 36-1-2 record, including 5-0 against the Gophers.

It did not take long for the daughters to be involved in very different ways in the Gophers’ attempt to pull off this upset.

Murphy is a dynamic player, an Olympian in 2022, and also has earned the ire of college opponents and a watchful eye from referees with her excesses when it comes to banging into opponents.

The Gophers hardly could use one of those Abbey specials in the early going, but there it came under the sharp and impactful eye of Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson. Five minutes in, Murphy was flying without the puck in an uncrowded zone and suddenly Wisconsin’s Caroline Harvey, a defender and a captain, was down on the ice.

There was no call, but Johnson called for a replay from the refs to decide whether Murphy had committed a major penalty. After a few minutes of looking at the video, Murphy was given a five-minute penalty for elbowing.

The Gophers were chasing for a bit but then played spectacularly to kill off the major. There was excellent work for skaters from the second line: Emma Kreisz, Ava Lindsay and, yup, senior Peyton Hemp.

Things got even better with six minutes left in the period: The Gophers flew around, got chances, and then right winger Hemp scored her 16th goal — second on the team to Murphy’s 33.

On Thursday, Laila Edwards was part of a pre-finals media session for Wisconsin. She was asked to put into one sentence what it is like to play several years against the mercurial Murphy?

Edwards smiled, waited 10-12 seconds and went with one word: “Intense.”

It was Edwards who prevented the Gophers from going into the locker room on the high of killing Murphy’s major and then taking the lead on Hemp’s goal. Early in a Gophers power play, Edwards fired a short-handed bullet over goalie Hannah Clark’s shoulder and it was 1-1 after the first.

Clearly, Badgers fans were buying tickets for this Frozen Four months early because Friday’s sellout crowd was at least 50% Badgers fans. For sure with a normal home game, the Ridder crowd would have been heard protesting a perceived pro-Badgers advantage with the refs.

Remember all those calls that used to bail out Mike Krzyzewski and Duke in clutch time in the NCAA tournament? Might it be Coach J is so well-respected that he’s the Coach K of women’s hockey?

Harvey got some revenge on the Gophers by scoring early in the second to make it 2-1. It was 3-2 for the Badgers when the standout from Salem, N.H., had her chance to take a return shot at Murphy in a corner.

Murphy went down, and a two-minute penalty was called. Johnson was waving with a high right hand to play on, but then Gophers coach Brad Frost asked for a major review. It stayed two minutes and Frost lost his timeout.

That wasn’t the decisive moment in the pro-Minnesota view.

Ella Huber, Murphy’s senior center and also from the Chicago suburbs, was knocked down behind the Wisconsin net. There was an official standing there, and the Gophers reacted as if there might be a stoppage due to an injured player. Murphy had stopped there next to the prone Huber, and the Badgers used that two-skater advantage to make it 4-2 with two seconds left in the second.

Puck-game, right there. The final was 6-2 Wisconsin.

Papa Ed Murphy, the blue-collar guy from Evergreen, Ill., on Chicago’s South Side border, with the daughter who plays with the feisty resolve of her home area, had been hopeful standing outside, two hours before the game.

“I think the Badgers can be beat, I really do,” he said.

Sorry, Ed — there might’ve been a glimmer before the Badgers got that big break with two seconds left in the second, but 6-for-6 is pretty strong evidence for the superior force.