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.

Now that the NCAA men’s basketball tournament is over, with North Carolina having emerged as national champions, there is another major collegiate sporting event that is nearing its end: the men’s hockey tournament.

NCAA Frozen Four 2017 Preview: Denver, Harvard, Minnesota-Duluth And Notre-Dame Competing

The NCAA Frozen Four will be held in Chicago on Thursday evening, and here are the four teams vying for the national title: Denver, Minnesota-Duluth, Harvard and Notre Dame.

First, the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs will face the Harvard Crimson at 6 p.m. EST, and then the Denver Pioneers play the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at 9:30 p.m. EST.

Both semifinals will be held at the Blackhawks’ United Center, and both games will air on ESPN2. The games can also be live-streamed on WatchESPN.

The championship game will also be played at United Center on Sunday at 8 p.m. EST, on the same channel and live stream.

Denver are the heavy favorites to win the national title, according to OddsShark, with Minnesota-Duluth the second-most likely team to win. Harvard and Notre Dame follow in third-most and fourth-most likely to win the championship, respectively.

The Pioneers (31-7-4) are the top seed in the hockey tournament. Denver advanced to the semifinals with victories over Michigan Tech and Penn State in the Midwest Regional.

Troy Terry scored a hat trick in the win over Penn State that punched Denver’s ticket to the Frozen Four, and he has scored 41 points this season. Henrik Borgstrom is the Pioneers’ leading scorer, with 21 goals and 21 assists.

Denver also boast a talented defensive squad, and goalie Tanner Jaillet has a .928 save percentage.

Notre Dame reached the national semifinals with a 3-2 overtime win over UMass-Lowell. Andrew Oglevie scored the winner early in the extra session.

Before that, the Fighting Irish defeated Minnesota 3-2 in the Northeast regional semifinal.

Notre Dame’s leading scorer is forward Anders Bjork, who was drafted by the Boston Bruins in 2014. Bjork has 21 goals and 31 assists.

Minnesota-Duluth (27-6-7) has had a great end to their season, with seven straight victories. The Bulldogs’ last two wins came in overtime against Ohio State first and then against Boston University.

Alex Iafallo leads Minnesota-Duluth in scoring, with 19 goals and 30 assists.

Harvard is the surprise team this year. The Crimson are playing in their first Frozen Four since 1994. Harvard are the country’s leading scoring team with 4.14 goals per game, and won the annual Beanpot tournament in February. The Beanpot is an annual competition between four major Boston hockey schools: Harvard, Northeastern, Boston College and Boston University.

In their last two games, the Crimson beat Providence 3-0 first, and then eliminated Air Force with a 3-2 win. Coach Ted Donato’s team have won 16 straight games, and Alexander Kerfoot and Tyler Moy lead Harvard with 44 points each.

Denver and Harvard are likely to win their respective games and advance to the finals given their records thus far this season.

BOSTON, MA – FEBRUARY 13: Luke Esposito #9 of the Harvard Crimson celebrates with teammates after scoring against the Boston University Terriers during the 2017 Beanpot Tournament Championship at TD Garden on February 13, 2017 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)