A goal by Madison Mashuga with 4.7 seconds remaining in the second overtime lifted Minnesota State Mankato to a 5-4 victory over the Gophers on Saturday at Ridder Arena and forced a third game in the best-of-three WCHA first-round series.
Gophers women’s hockey team slips up in overtime against Minnesota State Mankato
The Gophers and Mavericks will settle their best-of-three WCHA tournament first-round series Sunday.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
March 2, 2025 at 12:50AM
The Mavericks, who lost 6-1 in the series opener Friday, opened a 3-0 lead early in the second period before the Gophers made it 3-2 heading into the third period.
Alexis Paddington scored in the first minute of the third period to give the Mavericks a 4-2 lead, but the Gophers tied it with 15 minutes, 39 seconds remaining in the third period on Abbey Murphy’s second goal of the game and Krista Parkkonen’s first goal of the season.
“A disappointing result, obviously,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said. “Credit Mankato, and their goaltender in particular. We certainly had plenty of chances in overtime to close it out. Both goaltenders made some great saves. We didn’t pick up a player in the slot with five seconds left. In the net, game’s over. We have to regroup and learn from it.”
The winner of Sunday’s game at Ridder Arena will advance to next weekend’s WCHA Final Faceoff in Duluth. Minnesota Duluth, Ohio State and Wisconsin each completed sweeps of their first-round series Saturday.
Brennan Rigsby’s career day and game-winner are among the takeaways from the program’s first ever win at Nebraska’s Pinnacle Bank Arena.
