MINNEAPOLIS— The No. 1/2 Wisconsin women's hockey team defeated archrival Minnesota, 5-3, in the WCHA Final Faceoff semifinal on Saturday to advance to its seventh-straight title game. 

The Badgers (13-3-1, 13-3-1 WCHA) scored two power play goals against Minnesota (11-8-1, 11-8-1 WCHA) to help them pull away with a win at Ridder Arena.

Sophie Shirley was first on the board with a goal for the Badgers just over halfway through the first period. Wisconsin went into the second up 1-0 over Minnesota.

Freshman Makenna Webster scored the team's second just under halfway through the second period to double Wisconsin's lead.

Webster scored again late in the second on the power play to give UW a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes of play. 

Lacey Eden answered the Golden Gophers early third period goal with her own to bring the Badgers' lead back to two.

Minnesota scored again in the third to get back within one and pulled their goalie to get an extra man on the ice.

The Golden Gophers then took a penalty and were forced to put Minnesota goalie Lauren Bench back in the net.

Britta Curl lit the lamp on a power play for the Badgers' fifth goal in the final seconds of the final frame.

Three Notes of the Game

• Wisconsin improved to 52-10 all-time in the WCHA Final Faceoff and have advanced to the last seven WCHA title games. 

• This marked Webster's first multi-goal game and her second multi-point game as a Badger. 

• With her goal, WCHA Rookie of the Month Lacey Eden has recorded 12 points over just 12 games with the Badgers to average 1.00 points per game. She has recorded seven goals and five assists.

Straight from the Rink
Head coach Mark Johnson
On the improvement of players:
"That line has played well since we switched them around a few weekends ago. You all know, if a player scores a goal or helps their team win, their confidence goes up and I think the last couple weekends, especially last weekend at Minnesota Duluth, I thought that line played well. Makenna (Webster) and Casey (O'Brien), they've grown, they're much better players right now than when we first started with them. We've got 17 games with them under our belt. The nice thing about it is they've made strides, they've made improvements, they continue to get better. Certainly with Makenna scoring a couple goals, especially the one late in the second period on the power play."

On the league:
"This year without any non-conference games, it just makes each one of those contests within our league so vitally important. It's a goofy year but I know one thing- we've got four teams here at this tournament who are worthy of being here, that have had good seasons, and certainly deserve to move on (to the NCAA tournament)."

Junior forward Sophie Shirley
On the game:
"At the start there I think we were all going top to bottom, all our lines were really putting in a good effort and pushing on them hard. It was really good to see Makenna (Webster) get a couple of goals, I think anytime a freshman gets a couple like that it lifts the bench up a little bit."

Freshman forward Makenna Webster
On scoring off the power play:
"I feel like we were a little frantic at first but we knew that we were capable of getting a goal on the power play. We took a deep breath and knew that we had more time than we thought. We practiced that power play a lot and I would say that by the third one we knew exactly what they were going to do and we knew what we had to do."

Up Next:
Wisconsin will take on the winner of UMD/Ohio State in the WCHA Final Faceoff championship on Sunday at Ridder Arena. Puck drop is at 2 p.m. and fans can listen to the game on Fox Sports 1070 or watch it live on FloHockey.