Minnesota State Mankato jumped to a three-goal lead and held on to defeat Harvard 4-3 on Thursday in the first round of an NCAA men's hockey regional game in Albany, N.Y.
On Saturday, the Mavericks will play Notre Dame, a 2-1 winner over North Dakota in overtime, for a berth in the Frozen Four.
MSU Mankato (35-5), which won the CCHA regular-season and tournament titles and has a 16-game winning streak, took a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Akito Hirose and Reggie Lutz, and got another goal early in the second period by Brendan Furry.
The Crimson pulled within 3-2 near the end of the second period on goals scored 48 seconds apart by Sean Farrell and Alex Gaffney. The Mavericks scored to make it 4-2 before Harvard (21-11-3) got the final goal of the game with 3:31 left and its goalie pulled.
MSU Mankato outshot Harvard 40-22, and Mavericks goalie Dryden McKay, named one of three finalists earlier in the day for the Mike Richter Award which goes to the nation's top goalie, finished with 19 saves.
Minnesota Duluth 3, Michigan Tech 0: Ryan Fanti had 28 saves and posted his third consecutive shutout as the NCHC tournament champion Bulldogs won their first-round game in Loveland, Colo.
UMD will play Denver, a 3-2 winner over UMass-Lowell, on Saturday for the a berth in the Frozen Four.
Michigan Tech's leading scorer, Brian Halonen, was ejected for checking from behind in the first period. Halonen, one of the final 10 candidates for the Hobey Baker Award, is a senior from Delano, Minn.
Kobe Roth scored two goals, including an empty-netter, for the Bulldogs (22-15-4), and Kyler Kleven had a third-period goal.
Blake Pietila had 22 saves for the Huskies (21-13-3).
Notre Dame 2, North Dakota 1 (OT): Graham Slaggert's power-play goal just 1:38 into overtime gave the third-seeded Fighting Irish the victory of No. 2 seed North Dakota (24-13-1) in the Albany Regional semifinal.
Brent Johnson scored his second goal of the season late in the first period, firing a shot through traffic and beating goaltender Matthew Galajda to give UND a 1-0 lead after one period. Notre Dame (27-11-0) evened the score just 1:03 into the middle frame on Landon Slaggert's tally. He is Graham's younger brother
Notre Dame nearly won the game in the dying seconds, but an approximate 12-minute review by the officials deemed that the clock had expired before the puck entered the net.
UND was whistled for an interference penalty just 14 seconds into overtime, allowing Graham Slaggert to fire a shot through a screened Zach Driscoll.
Driscoll stopped 23 shots.
Denver 3, UMass-Lowell 2: Cameron Wright's goal with 2:57 in the third period was the game-winner for the Pioneers (28-9-1). Magnus Chrona made 16 saves against the River Hawks (21-11-3) for the win in Loveland.
