It was with an air of respect and diplomacy that University of Wisconsin men's hockey coach Mike Eaves took inventory of the enemy Friday night.

The Badgers had just emerged with a 3-1 victory over Minnesota at the Kohl Center, a decision that gave them an important bit of breathing room in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association standings.

UW was able to move into sole possession of fifth place heading into the series finale tonight thanks to two evolving truths.

One: The Badgers (11-10-4 overall, 7-8-2 with 16 points in the WCHA) appear to be playing better than they have all season. They got goals from freshman defenseman Ryan McDonagh, freshman center Kyle Turris and junior center and assistant captain Ben Street and nudged their longest unbeaten streak of the season to four games (3-0-1) before a crowd of 14,632.

Two: Thanks to a flurry of underclassmen leaving for the pros, a key injury and an extensive influx of youth, the Golden Gophers look little like the obscenely skilled powerhouse that has won two NCAA titles and five WCHA crowns since 2000.

Minnesota (12-11-4, 6-9-2, 14 points) is known for having at least a half-dozen guys who take your breath away when the puck is on their stick.

"I think they still do," Eaves said, mentioning center Blake Wheeler by name, but no one else.

Wheeler, a first-round NHL draft pick of Phoenix who leads the Gophers in scoring, had a team-best six shots and the only goal this night.

But while center Patrick White was a first-round NHL draft pick of Vancouver and left winger Mike Hoeffel was a second-round choice of New Jersey, both are freshmen still trying to get their bearings.

And don't get the Minnesota camp started on center Kyle Okposo, a first-round pick of the New York Islanders who abruptly pulled the plug on his sophomore season to turn pro last month, triggering some nasty rhetoric.

"I don't think we have the guys that take your breath away," said Gophers coach Don Lucia, who also lost veteran winger Ryan Stoa to a season-ending knee injury. "They've moved on. So we have to do it in another way."

Whatever way that is, it wasn't good enough to get the job done.

Minnesota was 0-for-3 on the power play — generating as many shots as it allowed with the man-advantage (two) — and lost the faceoff battle 30-21.

Two kids new to this storied rivalry — it dates back to 1922 and now includes 242 games — got things started for the Badgers.

McDonagh, a Minnesota kid from Arden Hills, scored midway through the first and played one of his best games of the season.

"I can say I've been eyeing this game for quite a long time now," he said.

Turris, McDonagh's best buddy and roommate, converted midway through the second on a partial breakaway.

His goal appeared on ESPN's SportsCenter Friday night, garnering the No. 7 sports play of the evening.

"We've been hearing all week from (Street) and (Shane Connelly) and (captain) Davis (Drewiske) — all the older guys — about how big the rivalry is and how much it meant," Turris said. "The whole week of practice we were battling hard, making sure we were ready."

There were two defining sequences this night. One was in the second when Connelly turned in a series of huge stops en route to 22 saves.

"He's giving us that quiet confidence a team needs," Eaves said of Connelly, the junior goaltender.

The other came at the outset of the third period when the game was in the balance.

Wheeler scored with 14.3 seconds left in the second to make it 2-1, but the Gophers didn't get a shot on goal for the first 12 minutes, 23 seconds of the third.

Though UW is one point out of fourth place, it's hard to get overly wrapped up in one game given there are 11 left in the regular season, including three with the Gophers.

But a win tonight would give the Badgers nine points in the last six games, which is how many they got in their first 10 outings to open league play.

"They're a good team and they're probably playing their best hockey of the season right now," Lucia said.

Eaves said his club has been moving in this direction since the end of the holiday break.

"Since we've come back, I think we've gone to another level," he said.