Minnesota came to the Kohl Center this weekend looking for their second straight sweep of a No. 1 team. Minnesota (6-3-1, 4-3-1) previously swept then-No. 1 Minnesota-Duluth last weekend, and showed no fear against the No. 1 Wisconsin women’s hockey team this weekend.

The Badgers (9-2-1, 5-2-1 WCHA), however, split the series this weekend, winning 3-0 Friday and losing 3-2 Saturday. Both games had a similar start, with the winning team leading 3-0 at the end of the first period in both games.

In front of 2,404 fans Saturday — the fifth-largest crowd for a women’s hockey game in Kohl Center history — the Badgers gave up two goals in a mere 48 seconds.

Minnesota senior Jenelle Phillipczyk recovered the puck off a face-off, and sent a backhand past Wisconsin goaltender Jessie Vetter for the first goal of the game at 11:08.

Forty-eight seconds later, Gophers freshman Jen Schoullis sent another backhand past Vetter, which put the Badgers in an early 2-0 hole.

“They just sniped me backhand,” Vetter said. “Backhands are tricky to read, and they had good backhands which went to the upper corners.”

The Gophers tallied a third goal — which proved to be the game-winner — in the final minute of the first period. Minnesota was on a power play and junior Rachael Drazan fired a shot which trickled through Vetter’s five hole.

Even though the Badgers were down 3-0, they didn’t panic heading into the locker room.

“Better to be down 3-0 in the first period, then in the second or third,” junior Erika Lawler said. “I was thinking we have plenty of time to come back and get a couple goals. I guess our way of thinking was we still have time left, rather than ‘uh oh, we are down three goals.'”

The Badgers got their chance to come back when the Gophers’ Dagney Willey was given a five minute checking-from-behind major penalty. The Badgers capitalized on this chance when Lawler fired a shot on goal and sophomore Meghan Duggan scored on the rebound 57 seconds into the third period.

“I think we rallied a little bit in the third period,” Duggan said. “We had some tic-tac-toe plays and we were moving the puck. I think it was good to get our team fired up, but we fell a little bit short.”

The Badgers comeback continued 17:18 into the third, when Duggan fed Lawler, who found the back of the net for the Badgers’ second goal of the game.

With 1:02 left in the game, the Badgers pulled Vetter and the crowd rose in anticipation of a game-tying goal. It was not to be, however, as Wisconsin ran out of time and Minnesota won 3-2.

Friday, the Badgers were put on their heels early with two penalties in the first five minutes. Minnesota had numerous opportunities to score during those two power plays, but Vetter turned away three shots and the defense blocked many others, as the UW penalty kill frustrated Minnesota.

“We did a great job killing those penalties,” Vetter said. “Those were huge and I think that turned the whole game around. We didn’t allow Minnesota to set up in our zone, and we kept it in their end.”

According to UW head coach Mark Johnson, killing off the early penalties went a long way in helping his team secure a win.

“We responded well, and we killed them off,” Johnson added. “We could have been down 2-0 if they score in both of those situations, and then it is a totally different game. The girls did a nice job of controlling the puck, and we managed to get out of it.”

Wisconsin sophomore Kyla Sanders scored the Badgers’ first two goals — at 10:04 and 16:28 — to take the momentum away from Minnesota.

“The people I was playing with, [Jasmine Giles] and [Kelly] Nash, are really good players,” Sanders said. “Today we worked really well as a line, and had some success.”

UW junior Angie Keseley added the final goal of the game 18 minutes into the first period.

Even though UW led 3-0 after the first period, Minnesota had outplayed Wisconsin, and the Badgers considered themselves lucky to be up 3-0.

“I don’t think we played very well in the early part of the game,” Johnson said. “As I told the team after the game, some nights you just have to figure out how you are going to try and win a hockey game. I thought we did a good job of killing penalties, and when we did break down, Jessie was there when we needed her.”

The teams were matched pretty evenly the rest of the game, as Vetter made 22 saves for her fifth shutout of the season.