NCAA Frozen Four Recap And Highlights: Denver Routs Notre Dame 6-1, Minnesota-Duluth Beats Harvard 2-1

The Denver Pioneers and the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs are headed to the men’s hockey national championship game following their respective victories over Notre Dame and Harvard in the Frozen Four in Chicago on Thursday night.

NCAA Frozen Four Recap: Denver, Minnesota-Duluth Advance To Championship Game

Minnesota-Duluth defeated the Crimson 2-1 in the first semifinal, and then Denver thrashed the Fighting Irish 6-1 at United Center.

Alex Iafallo scored the game-winning goal for Minnesota-Duluth with 26.6 seconds left to play in the rather slow game, following a scramble at the net and two possible tying shots hit the crossbar.

Iafallo tipped in Willie Raskob’s shot to lift the Bulldogs to a 2-1 win over Harvard. Raskob took a pass from Joey Anderson and shot the puck toward the slot. Iafallo fired it between Merrick Madsen’s legs to break the tie.

“It was a good pass by Joey,” Iafallo said. “We kept it in there at the blue line. And that was pretty much the key to the goal. And Raskob made a good play. We do it in practice all the time. So simple things like that, getting the puck to the net. Just had to shovel it in.”

The Crimson almost tied it again after that, however. With four seconds left in the third period, Harvard’s Luke Esposito hit the crossbar:

Minnesota-Duluth  (28-6-7) will now be playing in their third national championship game and their first since the 2011 team won the Bulldogs’ only title.

The championship game will also be held at United Center, and will be held Saturday at 8 p.m. EST. The final will air on ESPN2 and can be live-streamed on WatchESPN.

Tyler Moy scored his 22nd goal for the Crimson (28-6-2). Harvard, the nation’s leader in scoring, took the lead with five minutes remaining in the first period. Moy took a cross-ice pass from Alexander Kerfoot and shot the puck into the left side of the net on a power play.

Harvard nearly scored at 5:41 of the third when Sean Malone knocked in a rebound, but the whistle had already blown.

Around 2.5 minutes later, the Bulldogs’ Adam Johnson raced in and fired a shot from the right crease that Madsen blocked with his left pad but could not cover.

Harvard coach Ted Donato thought the puck crossed the line before the whistle sounded on Malone’s goal. However, he didn’t protest much.

“They went to the replay to try to get it correctly,” Donato said. “So obviously through my Harvard-colored glasses, it looked like a good goal. But it’s — everybody’s trying to do their best out there.”

In the second game, Denver (32-7-4) outshot Notre Dame by 25 and delivered a stellar offensive performance.

“I think we have to give a lot of credit to our forwards,” Denver captain Will Butcher, who also played a great game, said after the contest. “I think our forecheckers dominated and ate them up. Whenever we have a good forecheck going, we seem to get the puck back a lot more. It’s great when we get the puck back because we’re a puck-possession team. When we get that more, we get that early jump.”

The Pioneers will now face their conference-mate Bulldogs in Saturday night’s all-NCHC final.

Emil Romig scored the opening goal for Denver after coming out from behind the net. Notre Dame goalie Cal Petersen over-committed a sweep check from which he struggled to recover. Romig fired a fantastic shot from a low angle between Petersen’s left shoulder and the post.

A little over six and a half minutes later, Henrik Börgstrom on a passing play with Butcher that gave him a wide-open net to shoot at from the top of the crease.

“[This stretch for Denver has] probably been the most dominant,” said Pioneers coach Jim Montgomery. “We’re playing well. I mean, you know, there’s no doubt about it. But we’ve had some long stretches of playing well before. So I think it’s just we get in a rhythm and we start to really believe in what we’re about.”

Evan Ritt and Tariq Hammond also scored one goal each for Denver, while Dylan Gambrell added two goals.

Jordan Gross helped score Notre Dame’s only goal on a wrist shot that was tipped in by Cam Morrison in front with 8:36 left in the game.

Denver will be playing for its first national championship since 2005, when the George Gwozdecky-led Pioneers beat North Dakota for its second national title in two years. In 2004, the Pioneers defeated Maine in Boston.

CHICAGO, IL – APRIL 06: Colin Staub #24 of the Denver Pioneers controls the puck under pressure from Jake Evans #18 and Dennis Gilbert #4 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish during game two of the 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Championship Semifinal at the United Center on April 6, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. Denver defeated Notre Dame 6-1.(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)