For the second year in a row, Minnesota Duluth is the NCAA DI men’s ice hockey national champion. UMD defeated Massachusetts 3-0 in Saturday’s championship game to claim the title. SHOP OFFICIAL MINNESOTA DULUTH CHAMPIONSHIP GEAR The Bulldogs started Saturday’s contest with the bulk of offensive control, dominating the net with 14 shots on goal to Massachusetts’ five. Filip Lindberg was able to handle most of the action, including a bouncing puck in the crease and a close wraparound attempt on the post. The attack paid off eventually though, as UMD’s Parker Mackay took a calm and pretty backhand over the right shoulder of Lindberg. UMass was able to get a few shots off, but most of the period was spent in a neutral zone back-and-forth between the well-matched teams. As if UMD wasn’t already playing well, the Bulldogs dominated the second frame, adding 11 more shots on net and taking offensive control. Lindberg was stalwart for UMass, taking shot after shot until Mikey Anderson took a centering pass and hit the top shelf behind Lindberg. That put UMD up 2-0, and a textbook power play kill by the Bulldogs rounded out the period. Massachusetts found an offensive spark in the third and final period, but despite two power play opportunities, the Minutemen were unable to cash in. Again, play in the neutral zone dominated much of the period and each team mustered only six shots on goal each. To seal the win, Minnesota Duluth’s Jackson Cates netted the puck on a low shot that just barely snuck between Lindberg and the pipe. UMASS WILL BE BACK: The Minutemen are growing a hockey culture UMd netminder Hunter Shepard turned away 18 shots in his seventh shutout of the season and maintained a perfect 8-0 record in NCAA tournament games. Minnesota Duluth won its second national championship in as many years after appearing in its third-straight title game appearance. Last season, the Bulldogs defeated Notre Dame 2-1 for the national title. Cap gets his turn to skate with the troph! #FrozenFour 🏆 pic.twitter.com/yfH8nZAb5c — NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) April 14, 2019 Callan Sheridan is a graduate of Saint Peter's University and has produced content for The Press Enterprise, the American Junior Golf Association and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Follow her on twitter at @calsh_13.<doc-sep>BUFFALO, N.Y. — With 2:10 remaining in regulation Saturday in the NCAA championship game at KeyBank Center, the University of Minnesota Duluth pep band blasted its fight song for the masses. Bulldogs fans weren’t singing along to the song, however. They were well into a chant that would continue until the final buzzer. “Back-to-back! Back-to-back!” The Bulldogs put the wraps on their second consecutive national championship Saturday via a dominating 3-0 victory over Massachusetts before a crowd of 13,624, getting goals from senior captain Parker Mackay, sophomore defenseman Mikey Anderson and freshman center Jackson Cates. Anderson finished with three points while junior goaltender Hunter Shepard — now a perfect 8-0 in NCAA tournament games — made 18 saves for his seventh shutout of the season and school-record 15th of his college career. “To be able to go back-to-back at the NCAA level, it’s just a credit to my teammates and the coaching staff,” Mackay said. “Sandy (coach Scott Sandelin), it starts there from the top down. We’re going to enjoy it again just as much as the first one because it doesn’t come around that often. To be able to do it two in a row, unbelievable.” Mackay and Anderson connected twice in the first two periods to stake the Bulldogs to a 2-0 lead going into the third period. Like last year’s 2-1 NCAA title victory over Notre Dame at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, when senior Karson Kuhlman scored nine minutes in, the captain once again struck early in the first. Mackay, a senior wing, scored on the power play 3:51 into the 2018-19 championship, taking a feed up the middle from Anderson, a sophomore defenseman, and going forehand to backhand for his 16th goal of the season. “It’s unbelievable, he’s been our glue guy all year,” Anderson said of Mackay. “He’s taken the ‘C’ and worn it with pride. He’s done a great job.” Sophomore center Justin Richards won a faceoff late in the second to Mackay to set up the second score. The captain then wheeled himself into a position to find Anderson racing unmarked up the middle. Anderson recorded the second point of the evening by firing a shot top corner, bar-down over the glove of UMass freshman goaltender Filip Lindberg. His third came when he blocked a shot, that would eventually lead to the dagger by Cates with 2:42 left in regulation. Cates’ goal came after the Bulldogs killed a fourth UMass power play. The Minutemen finished 0 for 4 on the man advantage in the final after going 3 for 5 against Denver in a 4-3 overtime win in Thursday’s Frozen Four semifinal. The national championship is the Bulldogs’ third all-time and third for head coach Scott Sandelin, with all three coming this decade (2011, 2018, 2019). “This is awesome, it never gets old,” Sandelin said. “Every one is different, they’re obviously special.”<doc-sep>“Who hands out broccoli pizza? What is this?” The first words I hear when entering the dressing room of the NCAA Division 1 men’s hockey champions. The Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs pulled off back to back titles, but can’t get a proper pizza delivered. I ask Tampa Bay Lightning prospect his preference, pepperoni or broccoli. He doesn’t hesitate before selecting the traditional pie. You’ve now made it official, a championship in all of your rookie years. Yeah. Yeah. I’m in shock. Is this going to get you straight A’s the rest of the year? [laughs] Man, I hope so. The crowd wasn’t on your side this time, though, eh? It was fun, I mean, any big crowd is great if they’re into it. Even if they’re not on your side, the atmosphere is still great. This is all just so awesome. Is this rookie success going to carry over to the next level? Oh yeah, I hope so. The UMD Bulldogs came into the Keybank Arena in Buffalo making their third appearance and looking for their second straight Division 1 title. After losing to Denver in 2017, the Bulldogs defeated Notre Dame 2-1 last year and now faced a Frozen Four newcomer in the University of Massachusetts, and brushed them off easily with a 3-0 victory. Cole Koepke made yet another finals appearance in his rookie season, and almost scored twice as the Bulldogs defeated Providence 4-1 in the semi-finals. The energy ahead of puck drop was huge, with the UMD band beginning to play an hour ahead of game time, and fans filing in early to make sure they had their seats nice and warm for the start of play. That was the warmest welcome the Bulldogs would receive as the arena was filled with U-Mass fans who booed UMD’s warm up intro heartily and filled the rink with “Let’s Go U-Mass” chants for an hour until puck drop. Koepke made it to the starting line for the championship game, showing how much the freshman means to the team. He has a few shifts in the first few minutes, which are almost entirely spent in the U-Mass zone. The Bulldogs get the man advantage after Marc Del Gaizo on U-Mass is called for tripping. The Bulldogs score with the man advantage to make it 1-0 early on in the final. Precision puck movement on the power play finds the @UMDMensHockey captain to get his boys a lead early in the first period. 1st Period | UMass 0 | UMD 1#FrozenFour pic.twitter.com/c08rx6QEou — NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) April 14, 2019 After the goal, U-Mass put pressure on the net and trap the Bulldogs in their own zone, catching every clearing attempt, forcing Hunter Sheppard to make some big saves. When play gets back down to the U-Mass Zone, Koepke gets plenty of net front time, but gets hauled down by Jake McLaughlin with no call. Further into the game the Bulldogs clear the puck from their zone and Koepke follows Justin Richards into the offensive zone on a two on one, but Richards loses the puck before he can pass. The Bulldogs continue to hold onto the balance of power in this game, and halfway through the period lead U-Mass in shots 9-2. U-Mass gets their first power play of the game 13 minutes in when Scott Perunovich gets call for holding, and this is big since almost all of the goals in their semi-final game came with the man advantage. It won’t come this time as UMD doesn’t give them much space to work with. As the first period is winding down, U-Mass forward Jake Gaudet hits Peter Krieger and gets two minutes for incidental head contact, giving the Bulldogs a power play as the clock ticks down. UMD isn’t able to score before the period ends, and the score after twenty is 1-0 UMD. The Minutemen kill off the penalty at the start of the second period, and despite a few good chances from both sides, no one is able to score in the first half of the period, despite two breakaways for the Bulldogs. Oh my! Back-to-back-to-back breakaway chances turned aside by each team's respective goalies. 2nd Period | UMass 0 | UMD 1#FrozenFour pic.twitter.com/CTfWqHXe0e — NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) April 14, 2019 Despite controlling the puck and the game for most of the period, the Bulldogs struggle to get another one past Filip Lindberg. They more than doubled the Minutemen in shots, and takes until their 24th shot to get a second goal. As Cole Koepke screens the goalie, Mikey Anderson scores the second goal of the game to put the Bulldogs up 2-0. Mikey Anderson gets loose in the slot and finds the back of the net to pad the @UMDMensHockey lead. 2nd Period | UMass 0 | UMD 2#FrozenFour pic.twitter.com/sLr5wvBAu7 — NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) April 14, 2019 Minutes after that UMD forward Noah Cates gets called for a hit to the head against Cale Makar, and gives U-Mass another power play. The Bulldogs easily kill off the penalty, and with 18 seconds left in the period, Makar leans into a hit on Cole Koepke and gets two minutes himself. The second period ends and gives the Bulldogs 1:42 of a power play to finish off in the third. After two it’s 2-0 UMD and shots are 25-12 in the Bulldogs favour. The third period begins with U-Mass forward Niko Hildenbrand coming into the Bulldogs zone one on two, but isn’t able to get a decent shot at net. The power play ends with that one chance, and the Bulldogs defending well. In this game, Cole Koepke plays the position high up while four Bulldogs hang back playing defense. He’s also had some power play and penalty kill time. A good all around game in the final for the Lightning prospect. U-Mass gets another power play after Kobe Roth gets an elbowing penalty. U-Mass is limited to shots from the outside, as the UMD penalty kill won’t let anything through, or give U-Mass any chances to set up, and the penalty expires with UMD still up 2-0.<doc-sep>UMass Minutemen vs. Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs UMass-UMD Stats Team Regular Season Record Playoffs Record Regional Semi-Final Regional Final Frozen Four Semi-Final Team Regular Season Record Playoffs Record Regional Semi-Final Regional Final Frozen Four Semi-Final Massachusetts 26-8-0 5-1-0 W 4-0 Harvard W 4-0 Notre Dame W 4-3(OT) Denver Minnesota-Duluth 21-11-2 7-0-0 W 2-1(OT) Bowling Green W 3-1 Quinnipiac W 4-1 Providence April 13th, 2019 at 8PM EST KeyBank Center, Buffalo NY How to Watch: ESPN2, TSN2, ESPN/TSN apps Disallowed goals, hits to the head, and ejections were the stories of Thursday’s semi-final games. Both UMD and UMass overcame adversity in their semi-finals and will play for a national championship tonight. The Semi-Finals Minnesota-Duluth are the reigning national champions, having reached the Frozen Four final for the third time in the last three seasons. It was drastically different in pace compared to the second semi-final, as goals didn’t come until the second period. The Bulldogs overcame two disallowed goals in the semi-final against Providence and added two empty-netters to wrap up what was otherwise a fairly close game. Providence, only down by a goal until late, tried desperately to force overtime, but came up short. This is UMass’ first berth to the Frozen Four ever, and their first chance to play for a national title in school history. Their path to the championship game was nearly derailed by two ejections to key players and a furious comeback by Denver in the semi-finals. Captain Niko Hildenbrand and top line winger Mitchell Chaffee were both ejected for hits to the head, and UMass spent majority of the game on their heels and on the penalty kill. After UMass scored three straight powerplay goals, Denver dominated at even-strength in the third period, allowing them to come back from a 3-1 deficit. Although Denver skated circles around UMass for much of the overtime frame as well, freshman defensemen Marc Del Gaizo hammered home to the overtime winner to send UMass to its first NCAA final. How They’ll Win Minnesota-Duluth Defense wins championships. The Bulldogs have allowed the fourth-least amount of goals in the NCAA (1.95 goals per game). Goaltender Hunter Shepard has a .920 save percentage this season, is 7-0-0 in NCAA tournament games, and has only allowed three goals in his last three games. They won’t bend easily to UMass’ speed and relentless forecheck. Plus, they’ve got the edge in experience, given it’s their third straight berth to the final. They know what it feels like to lose — and what it takes to win. Massachusetts UMass thrives on using their transition up the ice as a catalyst for offense. It’s why we so often see Cale Makar driving through the neutral zone (or on a breakaway). But they were also extremely effective in limiting Denver’s zone entries with stick checks and pressuring puck carriers (when they weren’t killing penalties, that is). They’ll need to get back to their game — and if that leads to a few powerplay opportunities, well, that couldn’t hurt. Why They Won’t Minnesota-Duluth Repeat champions are almost unheard of these days — Denver was the last team to do it in 2004 and 2005. The NCHC conference (which the Bulldogs play in) didn’t exist then. That’s not the most convincing reason, I know. A fast start to build momentum is critical — it’s how they won last year’s championship game. They had solid starts against Quinnipiac and Providence. But if they let UMass gain momentum early, which they are known for doing, it’s going to be a long night for them. Massachusetts Penalties. UMass is not known for being an undisciplined team, but against Denver, they were. They spent 34 minutes on the penalty kill, which is over half the game. Their extended stint killing penalties prevented them from getting any offense going, and made it easier for Denver to get them off their game. They’ll need to stay out of the box and out of their own end if they want to win their first national championship. Plus, we’ll see how much fatigue plays into this — UMass looked gassed by the end of the third period on Thursday. Player to Watch Minnesota-Duluth Parker MacKay. The senior and Bulldogs captain has four points (three goals, one assist) in his last three games. Massachusetts Newly-minted Hobey Baker winner Cale Makar. Obviously. But really, keep an eye on the defense as a whole. All three pairs have great defensive awareness and are capable of driving offense. Suspension News The NCAA announced yesterday that UMass forward Bobby Trivigno would be suspended for the championship final as a result of his elbow to the head of Denver forward Jake Durflinger. Referees have ejected three players in this game but somehow missed this pic.twitter.com/oqK0wKJI4v — CJ Fogler (@cjzer0) April 12, 2019 NCAA just released this statement re: Trivigno pic.twitter.com/DIcmHKRkPa — Amin Touri (@Amin_Touri) April 12, 2019 There was no call on the ice at the time of the hit, and Denver neglected to use their coach’s challenge to review the play. Had Trivigno been penalized in-game, he would have been available to play tonight. It’s a huge blow to UMass’ forward depth — Trivigno scored the Minutemen’s first goal against Denver. The freshman will finish the season with 28 points in 39 games. Poll Who Wins? This poll is closed 77% Massachusetts (77 votes) 22% Minnesota-Duluth (22 votes) 99 votes total Vote Now We wanted to punish Adam (@ElSeldo) so we sent him to Buffalo. While he’s there we figured he might as well cover the Frozen Four. He caught the Makar media availibility after the semifinal win over DU. Here’s what he had to say: Q. Cale, who stepped up in the locker room between the third period and overtime to help get you guys refocused? CALE MAKAR: I think it’s been a transition from, like, a few guys all year to now everybody. I’d say a guy that definitely stepped up today was Mario. He’s just an energy guy. He gets the boys going. I don’t know if you guys seen the video that UMass posted on Twitter, he’s pretty energetic.<doc-sep>
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The pleading eyes of the UMass players and coaches as they glanced up at the scoreboard in the waning minutes of Saturday night’s 3-0 NCAA championship game loss to defending champion Minnesota-Duluth told the story as the Cinderella season of the maroon-and-white clad skaters came to an end before 13,624 fans in the KeyBank Center. UMD (29-11-2) became the first team to repeat since Denver in 2004-05. It was the third title overall for the Bulldogs, with the other coming in 2011. “We knew we had to play our best game tonight and we did,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin, who became the ninth coach in history to win at least three titles. The 18 shots produced by UMass (31-10-0) were its second-lowest total all season. “They are an excellent hockey team. No surprise that they have been in the (national) championship game three years in a row,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “For some reason, our compete level wasn’t what it was all season. I don’t know how much of that was Duluth or us playing late on Thursday night (4-3 OT win against Denver) and not enough time to recover.” Saturday night might have been the final time to see Hobey Baker Award winner Cale Makar in a UMass uniform as the star sophomore is expected to sign an early pro contract with the Colorado Avalanche, who drafted him No. 4 overall two years ago. Makar held high hopes for Saturday night, mentioning he was on the same team bench and had the same locker stall as he did when helping Team Canada strike gold in the building at the 2016 World Junior Championships. “It stings. Right now. Pretty sour,” Makar said. “Looking back at these last two years and the amount of respect we created for this emblem — UMass — is amazing.” Carvel, who resurrected the Minutemen from seasons of five and 17 victories to this year’s 31 wins, a No. 1 national ranking, culminating in a first-ever Hockey East regular season title and championship in the NCAA Northeast Region, praised his star player. “He’s a kid that sees the group ahead of himself. He did it with class every step along the way. He’s a better person than he is a hockey player. Hopefully, he comes back for another year,” said Carvel, voted the Spencer Penrose National Coach of the Year by his peers. The Minutemen, making their first-ever trip to the NCAA championship game, drew the first penalty when defenseman Marc Del Gaizo went off for interference at 2:31. UMD worked the puck brilliantly on the power play with left wing Riley Tufte taking possession down low, passing high to defenseman Mikey Anderson, who found Parker Mackay uncovered backdoor. The senior, who was playing in his third Frozen Four and was named Most Outstanding Player, lifted a short backhand home for his 16th goal at 3:51. UMass experienced a hairy moment when goalie Filip Lindberg (28 saves) lost his goal stick. Sophomore forward John Leonard attempted to hand Lindberg his own stick but both players wound up without wood. UMass scrambled but managed to work the puck from the zone with center Brett Boeing drawing a holding penalty against UMD’s ace blueliner Scott Perunovich. However, the UMD penalty kill unit did yeoman duty to prevent the potent power play of UMass from getting untracked. UMass came close to getting on the board when Makar tried a wraparound at the 15 minute mark. But Bulldogs goalie Hunter Shepard, who improved to 8-0-0 in NCAA career appearances, foiled the play with a quick pad slide across the crease. The building was buzzing at 5:12 of the second when Makar was drilled attempting to enter the UMD zone on a clean open-ice check from Bulldogs defenseman Nick Wolff. Minutemen fans tried to boost the underdogs with chants of “Let’s go UMass” to no avail as the Minutemen soon found themselves in a deep 2-0 hole. The Bulldogs had extended zone time in the UMass end and Mackay dug the puck in the right corner and passed out to Anderson out high. The defenseman held his shot as he skated down the slot before rifling the puck past Lindberg at 15:48. “Honestly, they outcompeted us. They clamped down on our wingers,” Makar said. UMass hopes were squelched when freshman center Josh Cates snapped a shot just inside the near post with 2:42 left in the game.