Faced with a must-win situation, coaches often will talk about the need for their best players to be their best players.

The Gophers and coach Brad Frost found themselves in that situation on Saturday afternoon at Ridder Arena after a surprising 5-4 loss to Minnesota State Mankato the night before in the opening game of their best-of-three WCHA quarterfinal series.

The Gophers’ top line delivered in spectacular fashion, combining for 11 points, including nine in the first period, as the Gophers jumped on the Mavericks early in a 7-1 victory.

The deciding game will be played Sunday afternoon at Ridder, with the winner moving on to the WCHA Final Faceoff, beginning Friday at Ridder.

Sophomore left winger Josefin Bouveng led the charge with two goals and three assists, right winger Abbey Murphy had two goals and two assists and center Ella Huber collected a goal and an assist.

“They led us really, really well,” Frost said. “Not just in the locker room and on the bench, but kind of putting their money where their mouth is.”

Bouveng said she and her linemates didn’t talk more than usual about the need to be productive. “But I think we all knew what was going on, that we would have to play well,” she said. “We started out pretty well, and that set the tone for the whole game.”

Asked if she thought it was her best performance as a Gopher, Bouveng said, “It’s hard to say, but we scored a lot of goals in the quarterfinals, so I will value that pretty high.”

Frost acknowledged that he didn’t sleep well Friday night after the performance by his team. He woke several times, he said, entering notes into his phone. He shared those notes with the team before the game.

“There was some stern messaging,” he said. “Here we are in Game 36, and it should be automatic by now in terms of how we play. We just went a little rogue (Friday) night.”

Huber expressed her confidence after the loss on Friday that the Gophers would bounce back.  Bouveng said she felt the same way.

“It was all up to us,”  she said. “We know we are the more skilled team, and if we decide to play the right way we can beat them. I’m glad we did that today.”

Bouveng gave the Gophers a 1-0 lead with an unassisted goal at 4:24. After forcing a turnover inside the Mavericks’ blue line, she weaved her way toward the net and beat Mankato goaltender Hailey Hansen on a wrist shot from the slot.

Huber scored her 15th of the season and fourth in two games when she buried a centering pass from Murphy from behind the net. Bouveng scored her second of the game less than two minutes later.

Using one of her signature moves, Murphy circled the Mankato net with the puck before setting Bouveng up in the slot. The Mavericks got on the board with a power-play goal at 14:14, but a 4-on-4 goal by Madeline Wethington and a power-play goal by Murphy gave the Gophers a 5-1 lead heading into the first intermission.

“Once we got that first one — and then second one — we’ve just been preaching that we need to continue to extend the lead,” Frost said. “We did that with five in the first.”

Second-period goals by Murphy and Madison Kaiser put the Gophers up 7-1. Playing with the big lead, the Gophers held the Mavericks to three shots on goal in the period and 18 in the game.

“We played with so much better structure, discipline, the details,” Frost said. “When we play like that we are going to be tough to beat.”

Briefly

Murphy leads the nation with 33 goals, the most by a Gophers player since Dani Cameranisi had 33 in the 2015-16 season. One more goal would tie Murphy with Hannah Brandt for the seventh-most number of goals in a season in Gophers history.

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The uphill climb to make the playoffs just got that much harder for the Wild.

After suffering a 3-1 loss to the Blues on Saturday night at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, the Wild find themselves eight points back of the final playoff spot. That gap is hard to believe considering a week ago the Wild were among the hottest teams in the NHL and had moved within two points of the final playoff spot.

That’s what losing three straight games will do. Remember the hard work from last month that helped the Wild dig themselves out of a hole? It’s rather meaningless at this point.

Not only did the loss serve as a blow to the Wild as they try to claw back into contention, it also spoiled the highly anticipated return of winger Mason Shaw. He suited up for the first time since tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee roughly 11 months ago. It was a long road back for Shaw, and the game was the manifestation of his tenacity to never give up.

“I was pretty calm before the game,” Shaw told reporters in St. Louis. “It felt like I was straight back where I was supposed to be.”

If only it would’ve ended with a better result.

After an evenly matched start to the game, the Wild fell behind 1-0 when a shot from the point took a wonky bounce in front of goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. Though it looked like Fleury might have made the save at the last moment, the replay showed that the puck fully crossed the goal line.

Credit the Wild for fighting back. The way things have been going it would’ve been easy for them to hang their heads. Instead, they responded by stepping up big time on the penalty kill, then parlayed that into some solid play for prolonged stretches.

The reward came in the second period when defenseman Jon Merrill fired from the slot and beat Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington to tie the game at 1-1.

That lead proved to be shortlived, however, as Blues winger Jake Neighbors made it 2-1 on the power play a few minutes later. Thinking perhaps Fleury had been interfered with in his crease, head coach John Hynes challenged the call on the ice. The officials quickly confirmed the goal.

As the Wild tried to net the equalizer in the third period, they couldn’t stay out of their own way, taking a few penalties that put them in a bad position. Any thoughts of a comeback ended in the final minute as Blues defenseman Torey Krug finalized the score at 3-1 with a long-range empty-net goal.

Now the Wild head into a matchup with the lowly San Jose Sharks on Sunday night at Xcel Energy Center more desperate than ever.

“We’re in the middle of a fight right now,” Shaw told reporters in St. Louis. “There’s a lot of hockey left and it’s a never say die attitude with this group.”

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Heading into Saturday’s tilt, Gophers basketball coach Ben Johnson said a goal was to end the season by playing without regrets and getting momentum before the postseason.

After a hideous start, Minnesota surely found the latter.

Cam Christie scored 19 points, Elijah Hawkins had 18 and the Gophers overcame a 23-point first-half deficit to beat Penn State 75-70 at Williams Arena.

“Just being able to have that perseverance is something we need to bottle up and know that we can be in any single game and take that over with us into the tournaments,” said Parker Fox, who finished with 11 points, six rebounds and four blocks.

Minnesota Gophers guard Elijah Hawkins drives to the basket against Penn State’s Qudus Wahab in the first half at Williams Arena on March 2, 2024 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)

Minnesota (18-11, 9-9 Big Ten), which has won three of five, welcomes Indiana on Wednesday and finishes the regular season at Northwestern on Saturday before the Big Ten tournament begins March 13 at Target Center.

The second half was reminiscent of when these teams met Jan. 27 in Happy Valley. Then, Minnesota trailed by 14 at the half before winning by nine.

This time it was a 21-5 second-half stretch, capped by an NBA-distance 3-pointer by Christie, that allowed the Gophers to take a four-point lead.

Included in the stretch were back-to-back 3s by Mike Mitchell Jr. and Hawkins followed by a jumper from Christie and Fox scoring down low to get Minnesota within 53-51, further firing up a season-high 11,318 in attendance.

Penn State took a 63-62 lead, but a steal by Hawkins set up Mitchell for a layup with 2:05 to play and Minnesota never trailed again.

The Gophers made 11 of 13 free throws in the final 2 minutes to finish a half in which they outscored Penn State 45-28.

Minnesota shot 57.7% in the second half after just 33.3% in the first 20 minutes, including 4 of 9 from deep after making just 1 of 11 in the first half.

“We just talked about when you’re like that you just got to chip away, find little victories to get you into halftime. The positive thing is we’ve been there before, so I don’t think there was any panic. It was more like when we get to half let’s regroup with urgency, especially on the defensive end and figure out ways to get consecutive stops,” Johnson said.

Penn State (14-16, 8-11) shot 52% in the first half, including 9 of 13 from deep but dropped to 37.9%, including 2 for 10 from deep, and committed 10 of its 17 turnovers in the second half.

Fox, a redshirt senior from Mahtomedi, had his first career start as a Gopher on Senior Day. He played three seasons at Northern State before knee injuries sidelined him the past two seasons.

“That a guy that’s been with me from day one. He’s battled. Anytime I can kind of reward a guy and let him get his name called I want to do it. He’s obviously earned that. Parker could easily start for this team, but I love what he brings off the bench, I love the energy. He just wants to win,” Johnson said. “He’s at this stage in his career where when you battle those type of injuries he wants to win for the guys in the locker room, for the program and for the state.”

Hawkins added eight assists, bumping his season total to 211 and breaking the single-season mark of 207 set by Marcus Carr in 2019-20.

“It’s just a testament to who he is … whether it’s an unselfish pass when he could take the shot or throwing a lob or creating something for somebody else,” said Fox, who scored the basket on the record-breaking assist. “The way he approaches the game and plays, it’s so fun to be a part of it.”

Minnesota played without starting guard Braeden Carrington (concussion).

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Yoán Moncada pulled a double into the right-field corner during the second inning of an April 2 game against the Houston Astros last season at Minute Maid Park.

The Chicago White Sox third baseman doubled again — this time pulling a grounder that just stayed fair down the first-base line — in the sixth inning. Batting left-handed again, the switch-hitter capped the day by going the other way with a two-run home run to left field in the ninth.

Moncada had a strong start to the season, going 8-for-18 (.444) with two homers and four RBIs in the series against the Astros as he built off his All-Tournament Team performance for Cuba during the World Baseball Classic. Then came the back issues that led to two trips to the injured list.

“During the first half of that season, it was painful, stressful,” Moncada said through an interpreter Thursday at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago in Bridgeport. “I couldn’t do anything. I wanted to do stuff and help the team but I couldn’t. It was a really tough time for me.”

He was out from April 11-May 12 with lower back soreness and again June 14-July 25 with lower back inflammation.

Moncada rebounded after returning from the second IL stint, slashing .280/.323/.430 with two home runs and 12 RBIs in August and .298/.344/.560 with six home runs and 12 RBIs in September.

“Once I started getting better and stronger, I felt much better and I felt good,” Moncada said. “That was why I was able to finish the way that I did and that’s how I feel right now.”

The 28-year-old is aiming to use that late-season bounce back as a springboard for 2024.

“He feels great, the back feels great, he’s motivated,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “He’s going to get to spring training early on the 31st of January or first of February, which is a great sign and he’s going to put himself in a position to have a great year. We need Moncada.

“He’s motivated to having a full season under his belt, which is good for him.”

Moncada slashed .260/.305/.425 with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs in 2023. After appearing in 144 games in 2021, Moncada played 104 games in 2022 and 92 in 2023.

His offseason work has included strengthening his abs, back and legs to “get all that core really strong,” he said.

“The way I’m preparing myself for this coming season is to play 202 games,” Moncada said, when asked about attempting to play as close to 162 games as possible. “That’s an exaggeration, but that’s how I’m preparing myself.

“I want to be healthy. I want to be on the field every day.”

Moncada said he is motivated and excited because he’s healthy.

“That’s the only thing I want — if I’m healthy, I know I can do a lot of good things in the field,” Moncada said. “I’m excited right now to get to spring training and start working.

“I think God has saved something good for me. Hopefully we are going to see that. Hopefully I’ll be able to be healthy and really show and really display all I can do on the field.”

Moncada’s best season was in 2019, when he established career highs in several categories, including OPS (.915), doubles (34), home runs (25) and RBIs (79). He signed a five-year, $70 million extension in March 2020 — a deal in which the Sox hold an option for $25 million in 2025 with a $5 million buyout.

The solid defensive third baseman knows he’ll be fielding questions from reporters about the future.

“I would love to stay with the White Sox if they want me here,” Moncada said. “I’m very thankful for the White Sox for the opportunity they have given me after I was traded from the Red Sox (in December 2016). They’ve been treating me very well. I like the organization, I like the city, I like the fans. I would like to stay here.”

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