Leads weren’t safe in the opening games of the WCHA Final Faceoff on Friday at Amsoil Arena in Duluth.

After the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs let an early lead slip away in a 3-1 loss to Wisconsin in the first game, Ohio State couldn’t close out a lead against the Minnesota Gophers women’s hockey team.

The Buckeyes jumped on top 2-0 in the opening 9:23 of the second semifinal only to give up two goals to the Gophers in the closing six minutes of the first period.

Minnesota then tacked on two more in the second and third periods, including an empty-net goal after Ohio State pulled its goaltender for an extra attacker with 5:24 left, down by three for a 6-2 victory.

“Obviously, very, very happy we’re moving on, really proud of our group, especially after getting down two goals there early,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said. “To fight back the way we did, the power play was buzzing there to get us back into it. To get that two-goal lead there in the second going into the third was huge.”

Minnesota will face Wisconsin at 2 p.m. on Saturday in Duluth in the WCHA championship game.

The power play got the Gophers into the game.

Redshirt senior wing Abbey Murphy and senior center Ella Huber tied the game at 2-all with power-play goals. Both advantages were set up via penalties on Ohio State junior defenseman Emma Peschel that came less than five minutes apart.

Minnesota finished 2 for 4 on the power play on Friday.

“We couldn’t dig ourselves out of a hole that we put ourselves into,” Buckeyes coach Nadine Muzerall said. “The disappointing thing is we quit. I didn’t appreciate it because we did embarrass OSU and who we are and what we represent. If we’re going to lose, we’re going to fight if we lose. We’ll take it on the chin, but we never quit and we did that tonight.”

Murphy’s power-play goal 14:05 into the game was the 100th goal of her Gophers’ career. She finished with two goals, an assist and a minor penalty on Friday, scoring goal 101 in the third to put Minnesota ahead by three.

“It’s fun, but it would be more fun to win tomorrow,” Murphy said of the milestone. “It’s nice. It doesn’t happen without my teammates.”

Minnesota’s penalty kill came to play Friday, as well. The Gophers killed off back-to-back penalties on Chloe Primerano and Huber that came within 31 seconds of each other early in the third, including a lengthy, 1:29 two-person advantage for the Buckeyes, who finished 0 for 3 on the power play.

Minnesota was still only leading by two at the time.

“Honestly, I got so much energy from that 5 on 3,” said Murphy, who got her second goal after those kills. “The game was not over and they still could have came back with that. Our PK was absolutely killer. The momentum we got from that was insane. That was the moment I was like, ‘Hell yeah.’”

The Gophers are trying to prevent a Wisconsin repeat as WCHA postseason champions. The Badgers won the Final Faceoff championship last year at Ridder Arena. Meanwhile, a Gophers’ win would give the program its second WCHA Final Faceoff title in three seasons.

Minnesota went 0-4 against Wisconsin during the regular season, losing by a combined 23-6. The Badgers swept their most recent meeting in Madison 8-2 and 6-1.

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