Half of the regional finals are set after semifinal games of the NCAA men's hockey tournament on Thursday featured late drama and a goaltender on a hot streak.
Four more games are on tap for Friday in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Worcester, Massachusetts.
In Allentown, overall top seed Michigan faces American International while St. Cloud State squares off against Quinnipiac .
The first and third games of the day will be in Worcester. Western Michigan is pitted against Northeastern and Minnesota plays Massachusetts , the defending NCAA champs. Follow the tournament on The Rink Live by visiting the game blogs, which will be published shortly before the puck drops for each matchup.
Already advancing to regional finals on Saturday are Denver, Minnesota Duluth, Minnesota State and Notre Dame. Here's how those regional semifinals played out Thursday:
ADVERTISEMENT
Minnesota State scored the game’s first three goals against Harvard in the NCAA regionals on Thursday and held on for a 4-3 win at Albany's MVP Arena.
Mavericks head coach Mike Hastings said a key goal came early in the third period when Ondrej Pavel rushed up the left side and beat Harvard goalie Mitchell Gibson glove side to give the Mavericks a 4-2 cushion.
Harvard scored a power-play, extra-attacker goal with 3:31 to go, but couldn't get the tying goal.
The game provided a prelude of drama to come later in the day.
In Loveland, Colo., Minnesota Duluth junior goaltender Ryan Fanti recorded his third consecutive postseason shutout and the Bulldogs advanced to their seventh-straight NCAA regional final with a 3-0 victory over Michigan Tech at Budweiser Events Center.
UMD senior wing Kobe Roth scored two goals — the second being an empty-netter in the final seconds — and freshman fourth-line wing Kyler Kleven got his second of the season.
It took overtime for Notre Dame to knock North Dakota out of the tournament. The Irish had a goal waved off as time expired in the third period in Albany, but Graham Slaggert fired a shot to beat UND goaltender Zach Driscoll at 1:38 of OT to help Notre Dame advance 2-1 and set up a showdown with Minnesota State.
In the day's final game, Cameron Wright broke a 2-2 tie with a goal at 2:57 of the third period as Denver snuck past UMass-Lowell 3-2 . The Pioneers will face Minnesota Duluth on Saturday.
ADVERTISEMENT
