MADISON, Wis. — The top-ranked Wisconsin women's hockey team tied the fifth-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers, 2-2, in the second game of the Border Battle series on Saturday afternoon.

Wisconsin (15-2-1, 11-2-1-1) saw two goals from Casey O'Brien but was unable to pull ahead of Minnesota (13-5-0, 8-4-0-1).

Minnesota put up one goal in the first to head into the second ahead of Wisconsin 1-0.

O'Brien lit the lamp early in the second period to tie the game up with her 18th goal of the year off an assist from Sarah Wozniewicz to tie the game up at 1-1. 

After Minnesota regained the lead with 12 minutes left in the third, O'Brien added her second of the game to knot the game at 2-2.

The game went into three-on-three overtime but neither team was able to score. Minnesota won the shootout 3-2 in the eighth round.

Three Notes of the Game

• Casey O'Brien leads the nation in goals with 19 this season. The next closest is teammate Makenna Webster with 14 goals.

• O'Brien and Webster are now tied leading the nation in points this season with 34 each. O'Brien put up a multi-goal game on Saturday while Webster notched a point off an assist.

• UW has continued to dominate play in the second period, as the Badgers have now outscored their opponents 39-2 in the middle frame.   

Straight from the Rink
Head Coach Mark Johnson
On the top-five showdown:
"You need these games. If you look at our past two or three weekends, we haven't had this. We had two weeks off then were up at St. Thomas so we haven't had that competition that we needed. These games help you find out about yourself and some of the things you need to work on."

On the overall game:
"We started rough and played well enough to hang around and when they made it 2-1 we got a nice goal to tie it and had a couple shots in overtime that I thought were going in and then the last part of the power-play we had a back door play that she had a good save on. It's a learning opportunity that we need to put in the back of our minds and be ready to play each game."

Sophomore forward Casey O'Brien 
On the Badgers performance against Minnesota:
"There were definitely some chances that we're going to look back on and wish we'd done one thing differently but at the end of the day it's important to lose. It's only going to help us going forward especially in elimination games against tough teams. I think we learned a lot from this weekend and it's just going to help us going forward."

On her two goals:
"On the first goal Woz (Sarah Wozniewicz) was going to the net and pushed the defenders creating chaos so a lot of that goal had to do with her. Then my second goal, Mak (Makenna Webster) and Maddi (Wheeler) both were just getting in peoples' way, getting to the net, so I think it was an effort from everybody on the ice."

Up Next:
UW wraps up play in the 2021 calendar year with a road series at Bemidji State. Puck drop on Friday is set for 3 p.m. while the series finale at the Sanford Center on Saturday is at 2 p.m.