It had been nearly nine months since the Gophers and Wisconsin Badgers last saw each other. Absence did not make the heart grow fonder.

Friday night at Ridder Arena, with the sting of losing to the Badgers in the Frozen Four last March very much on their minds, the Gophers got the upper hand in another contentious “Border Battle,” beating the Badgers 5-3 before an announced crowd of 2,794.

Gophers coach Brad Frost spoke afterward about how the high-intensity, highly skilled matchup was good for women’s hockey. Beating the defending national champions was good for the Gophers’ psyche, and as right winger Abbey Murphy said, “There’s nothing like beating them twice.”

The Gophers will get their shot at doing just that on Saturday afternoon.

The No. 3 Badgers began the season 12-0 but have since lost four of their past five. They were swept at Ohio State, when they were limited to a total of one goal in the two games. The Badgers split their series with Minnesota-Duluth last weekend.

Murphy once again led the way for the Gophers, scoring a pair of goals to give her 21 on the season. She has six goals in the past three games.

“I have the mentality of wanting to put the puck in the net,” Murphy said, “and there’s no more fun than doing that. I have the perfect linemates to do that; I feed them and they feed me. I’ve been getting comfortable and trying new things. Just trying to contribute any way I can.”

The Badgers entered the game with highest scoring offense in the country, averaging 5.5 goals per game. The Gophers kept Britta Curl, the Badgers’ leading scorer, off the scoresheet. Curl came into the game averaging 2 points per game on 12 goals and 20 assists.

“They’ve got a lot of good players,” Murphy said, “but we also have had good defensive play. We’ve been practicing that a lot these past weeks, and it’s kind of fun to see that happen — shutting down some of the top scorers in the league.

“So props to our team and our defense for doing it.”

Murphy gave the Gophers a 1-0 lead at 7:30 of the first period, using her speed to get around the Badgers defense down the right wing and tucking the puck past goaltender Jane Gervais from in tight.

The Badgers needed only 47 seconds to pull even on a goal by Maddi Wheeler. They took a 2-1 lead two minutes later with Murphy in the box serving a major penalty for slashing, when Kirsten Simms beat Gophers goaltender Lucy Morgan for her 14th goal of the season.

Murphy added a power-play goal of her own at 16:32, scoring on a one-timer from the left-wing circle.

“Obviously you don’t want to be in the box like that,” Murphy said. “It’s also a personal thing; just taking a deep breath and realizing that I’m useless in the box.”

Nelli Laitinen gave the Gophers a 3-2 lead at 7:03 of the second period when her flip shot from the left point got through traffic and beat Gervais to the short side.

Gophers junior right winger Sadie Lindsay, who scored her first career goal last Saturday, scored her second at 11:36, pushing in a rebound off a scramble in front.

The Gophers’ lead grew to 5-2 at 2:33 of the third period when Solveig Neunzert scored her first of the year.

The Badgers added a goal by Casey O’Brien at 14:02, turning what was looking like a one-sided Gophers victory into a bit of a nail-biter for the home team.

“A lot of bend but don’t break, especially in the third,” Frost said. “They made a push, which we expected. But Lucy was great in net; her first “Border Battle” after being at St. Lawrence for four years.

“There were a lot of blocked shots, a lot of big-time plays. I just loved how are kids just kept playing.”

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When news broke of the Bears considering a new stadium on the land currently housing the south parking deck, it gave many Chicagoans hope that the team would remain nestled on the lakefront and that we would maintain our distinction of being the largest city in the country where every professional sports team plays its home games within the city limits.

The possibility of the Bears building a stadium and remaining in Chicago signals that a reset between the Bears organization, by way of new President Kevin Warren, and Mayor Brandon Johnson is not empty rhetoric, but it is the true desire of both parties, which is good for Chicago.

In Warren, the Bears have a proven transformational leader. He is the architect of one of the most monumental professional stadium deals in U.S. history, which allowed the state of Minnesota to pay off bonds 23 years before the final payment was due. Johnson has been clear-eyed and optimistic about the Bears’ situation, which has allowed the conversations to begin anew.

People opine that Soldier Field is the worst stadium in the NFL for overall fan experience, and these arguments are valid, mainly because Soldier Field was never intended to be a football stadium. The Bears ended up there because they had nowhere else to go.

Many factors make Soldier Field less than attractive for the modern era. In addition to the aforementioned impediments, the Bears can’t profit off of parking and other assets, and they are one of only two NFL teams that cannot generate revenue from the naming rights of the stadium. Building a new Chicago stadium presents an opportunity for the Bears to craft a smarter agreement that does not hinder them, one that uses precision in crafting the stadium usage deal. There is no barrier to creativity for this option.

NFL stadium usage deals run the gamut. In Chicago, the Bears pay rent of about $6 million a year. In New Orleans, the Saints get paid around that same amount by the state of Louisiana, and in Baltimore, the Ravens don’t pay rent, but they do pay for utilities and salaries for the staff of the Maryland Stadium Authority. It is not so much that the Bears need to own their stadium, but that a balance needs to be struck that is favorable to Chicago and the organization. We should be looking to tailor-make a deal that works specifically for our realities in Chicago.

Over the years, we’ve heard suggestions that the Bears should move to various places, including Evanston, Arlington Heights and Gary. As an attorney who has worked on stadium deals inside and outside Chicago, an avid sports fan and the elected representative of Soldier Field and the surrounding community, I have been clear about my stance on public subsidies for private development, but I have also been clear that I truly believe that the Chicago Bears should play football in Chicago.

The opportunity to be bold and smart exists in full form. We can create a public-private partnership on the lakefront that works. We can be cutting-edge when it comes to the carbon footprint of a new stadium, by building a low-carbon, eco-designed stadium. We also have a chance to use this as an opportunity to finally connect our lakefront and our people through public transit solutions.

We should be asking if a new stadium can help us chip away at our legacy pension debt issues and do the work to reverse-engineer that result by figuring out the right financial mix to reach that result.

An advantageous solution may lie just south of the parking deck at the Lakeside Center. In 2019, I introduced a bill to rebuild its aboveground portions, while returning additional parkland to the people and preserving the underground portions of the building, such as the Arie Crown Theater. Could a convention center connected to an NFL stadium work? It seems to be doing so in Indianapolis, where the city’s convention center and the Lucas Oil Stadium are connected. The stadium has hosted Super Bowls, Final Fours, College Football Playoffs and many Big Ten Championships.

Many, if not all, of these possibilities would require some attention from the legislature in Springfield, and I happen to know some folks down there who would be willing to help.

This leaves the question: What to do with Soldier Field? Let’s be honest. We are about six months away from having another public debate in Chicago about the lack of public spaces for young people — the Chicago Park District’s first stated core value is “Children first.” Soldier Field is the biggest Park District facility and simultaneously one of the least used; it would be counter to those core values to tear it down instead of finding ways to program it for Chicago’s young people.

Finally, with a Chicago-friendly White House, we should be lobbying President Joe Biden’s administration to restore Soldier Field’s historic landmark status so we can regain access to the millions of federal dollars for the building that we have missed out on since we lost that designation in 2006. Whether or not you are a fan of the old columns or the spaceship that landed in them, there is no question of the historical significance of a site that has hosted so much of America’s history.

This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the public and private sectors to work together, for Springfield and City Hall to work together and for the NFL to prove that it is as adept at making deposits in its most important cities as it has been in making withdrawals.

I believe that we can figure it out, and we don’t have to wait for a Super Bowl win to do it.

State Rep. Kam Buckner, a Chicago Democrat, represents the 26th District.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.

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Erick Fedde will look to carry his success in the Korea Baseball Organization back to the major leagues after signing a two-year deal with the Chicago White Sox for $15 million, a source confirmed to the Tribune on Tuesday.

The addition is pending a physical. ESPN’s Jeff Passan had the initial report.

The right-handed pitcher, 30, isn’t a stranger to MLB, having made 88 starts in 102 career appearances.

Fedde has a career 21-33 record with a 5.41 ERA during six seasons with the Washington Nationals. He has 352 strikeouts and 191 walks in 454 1/3 major-league innings.

He had a terrific 2023 with the NC Dinos of the KBO, going 20-6 with a 2.00 ERA in 30 starts. He had 209 strikeouts and 35 walks in 180 1/3 innings.

Fedde set MLB career highs in wins (7), strikeouts (128) and innings pitched (133 1/3) in 2021. Overall, he went 7-9 with a 5.47 ERA in 29 outings (27 starts).

He matched the career-high in starts (27) while going 6-13 with a 5.81 ERA in 2022.

Fedde earned MVP honors after leading the KBO in wins, ERA and strikeouts in 2023.

It all caught the attention of the Sox, who have been looking for pitching depth.

Last month, the team traded for pitchers Michael Soroka and Jared Shuster as part of the six-player deal that sent reliever Aaron Bummer to the Atlanta Braves.

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