UMD POWERS PAST UNION
Minnesota Duluth 2, Union 0 | Box Score 

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — In a regional stocked with three of the mightiest power plays in the land, it’s only natural Minnesota Duluth would be overlooked. 

Headed into their opening-round game with Union, the Bulldogs seemed a bit bothered by the snub, and they set out to prove their power play is worthy of praise as well. 

Third-seeded UMD (23-10-6) got power play goals from Kyle Schmidt and Justin Fontaine and played equally exceptional on the penalty kill, holding the nation’s top power play unit scoreless on nine chances. Throw in 32 saves from Kenny Reiter and the Bulldogs had a tidy 2-0 East Region semifinal victory over second-seeded Union (26-10-4). 

“It’s been good for the past year and something we thrive off of,” Fontaine said of the Bulldogs’ power play, which was converting at 32.1 percent (9-for-28) over the previous eight games. “We want to win the special teams battle and that’s what we did tonight.” 

Schmidt broke the scoreless draw at 14:38 of the second period. Mike Montgomery wristed a shot from the left point that changed direction twice in a split second. Travis Oleksuk got the first deflection in front of the net and Schmidt, near the right post, got the next touch past Union goalie Keith Kinkaid for his ninth goal of the year and his second since Dec. 3. 

“It’s a huge feeling,” Schmidt said. “I got one in the first round of the (WCHA) playoffs, which helped me get back in. I was out for five weeks with a broken hand so that was a little bit of a factor.” 

Fontaine gave his team some breathing room with his goal at 6:24 of the third period. Fontaine’s initial shot from the right wing was stopped by Kinkaid and the puck came out to Justin Faulk, who fired a high shot over the cage. The rebound came out to Fontaine in the right circle and, as he was losing his edge he scored his 21st goal of the season before ending up on his rear-end, pumping his fists in celebration. 

Union’s power play was converting at 31.1 percent coming into the game. The Dutchmen came up empty on four chances in the first period, two in the second, and three in the third. It was the eighth time in 40 games that Union failed to produce a power play tally. 

“We had 17 shots on the power play,” said Union coach Nate Leaman. “That’s a lot of shots. I thought we had some great opportunities early on the power play. We just couldn’t cash them in.” 

UMD managed to block 20 shots, 12 coming in the final period. 

“You look at guys like (Wade) Bergman and (Brady) Lamb, especially Bergman because he’s not a huge guy but he’s like a sponge—he just attracts pucks,” Reiter said. “That’s huge for us, especially on the penalty kill. They had a few chances right in the slot there. I didn’t see the chances but luckily they got blocked.” 

Union held a 36-33 edge on faceoffs, but Leaman said most of the draws on the power play went the way of the Bulldogs. “They dominated that area and that took away some of our power play time.” 

With 17 minor infractions almost evenly split, more than half of the game was played on special teams, and both coaches said it was hard to get a rhythm going with four lines rotating through the contest. 

CHAD DOESN’T LEAVE YALE HANGING
Yale 2, Air Force 1  (OT) | Box Score 

Yale junior Chad Ziegler wears one of those uniform numbers—No. 59—that we’re accustomed to seeing during spring training, often a pitcher thrown into a late-game, mop-up situation. 

Ziegler got the call at the critical time and answered in a big way. His acrobatic overtime goal lifted the top-seeded Bulldogs to a 2-1 victory over No. 4 seed Air Force and a berth in the NCAA East Region finals. 

Yale (28-6-1) will take on Minnesota Duluth (23-10-6) in Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. ET title game. Atlantic Hockey champion Air Force had its eight-game win streak snapped and finishes at 20-12-6. 

“It was an amazing feeling to get that goal,” Ziegler said. “It felt great, especially for the seniors we have on the team. For the seniors to play another day is special. We’re one more game away from moving on to the Frozen Four, and we’re focused on that now.” 

There were just 10 combined shots on goal during the third period and eight in a flurry of three-plus minutes of overtime. Yale’s Ryan Rondeau (22 saves) turned aside five potential winners by Air Force and freshman Jason Torf (26 saves) made three stops for the Falcons. 

On the final play, Brendan Mason sent a pass out to Nick Jaskowiak on the right point. His shot hit Torf in the thigh and bounded up in front of his face, causing him to put both hands up in the air. Ziegler got two cracks at the loose puck, appearing to whiff on the first try and then making a head-long dive, flicking a backhanded shot past Torf while he was sprawled on the ice. It was Ziegler’s eighth goal of the season and first in 10 games dating back to Feb. 12 at Clarkson. 

The goal, at 3:16 of extra time, prompted the Yale bench to empty and join Ziegler and others behind the Air Force net. 

“The coach was saying to get to the net,” Ziegler said. “Throughout the whole game there’s rebounds to be had. … I was lucky to get a stick on it.” 

Yale’s Brian O’Neill opened the scoring at 7:28 of the second period. Jaskowiak had the puck on the right point and he made a hard pass to O’Neill on the left post for the tap-in and his 19th goal of the season. 

Air Force’s Sean Bertsch’s extra-effort goal late in the second period tied the score at 1-1. Bertsch had the puck behind the net and lost his defender when he suddenly reversed direction. Bertsch quickly came around to the left of Rondeau and stuffed a shot into the cage at the 18:34 mark. 

Air Force had the makings of yet another NCAA thriller—the Falcons nearly upset Minnesota in 2007; lost to national runner-up Miami in overtime in 2008; and beat Michigan, 2-0, in 2009 before losing to Vermont in double overtime in the regional final. 

Frankly, it was all going according to plan, said Air Force coach Frank Serratore. 

“Yale is an explosive team that plays with a tremendous amount of energy,” Serratore said. “Our game plan was to rope-a-dope our way through the first two periods. We feel no team can go like (Yale did) for three periods without tiring. We figured they would peter out a bit in the third period. We took their shots, we got some bounces and we got to that third period and all of a sudden the worm started to turn. I thought we had the better of legs in the third period and the better of legs in the overtime.” 

Yale coach Keith Allain politely disagreed with Serratore’s conditioning assessment. 

“I think we were pretty fit,” Allain said. “We have a bunch of players who are willing to pay the price to be fit.” 

Air Force nearly stole the victory in the final minutes of regulation. A poor clearing attempt from the goal line was intercepted, and Rondeau was called on to make a big save. In the early minutes of overtime, Ryan Timar almost scored on a deflection, George Michalke nearly scored off a bang-bang passing play in front, and Tim Kirby had a shot from the right circle gloved by Rondeau. 

Ziegler would score the winner about 15 seconds later. 

“They are a great team,” Serratore said of Yale. “They have some great players. They made a play and a second-effort play and it went in. The guys followed our plan to the letter. Sometimes life isn’t fair; you better get used to it. This isn’t a juice box league. It didn’t go our way tonight. I couldn’t be more proud of our boys.” 

SEEN AND HEARD AT THE ARENA AT HARBOR YARD 

Lamoureux bids farewell: The regional semifinal loss to Yale put an end to the career of Air Force all-star forward Jacques Lamoureux. Yale kept close tabs on the 2009 Hobey Baker finalist and Lamoureux managed just one shot on goal. He had scored in seven consecutive games, including three goals during the Atlantic Hockey Final Four.

“It’s tough,” Lamoureux said. “It hasn’t quite sunk in yet. It’s tough for it to end like that.”

Lamoureux produced 24 goals and 20 assists in 38 games this season. In 116 career games at Air Force, he had 79 goals and 60 assists for 139 points.

Lamoureux comes from a hockey-rich family in North Dakota. He was not accepted into the Air Force Academy initially and played one season at Northern Michigan. Undaunted, Lamoureux re-applied, passed the required tests, and was admitted to the Academy. He had to sit out one season per NCAA transfer rules, and then had three of the finest seasons in Air Force history, leading the Falcons to two NCAA tournaments. 

“It’s one of those things that I wanted, what Air Force offered beyond hockey,” Lamoureux said. “We’re going to graduate in a couple months and we’re going to serve our country and we will do it proudly—that is something I wanted to do. 

“I thought I could come here and have a little bit of success but not the type of success that I was fortunate to have. I am thankful I had coach (Serratore) put a lot of trust and confidence in me from day one to put me in those types of opportunities. 

“It’s tough to see it all come to an end but I couldn’t have asked for it to go any other way.” 

No excuses: Even though this was the first NCAA tourney appearance for Union, the Dutchmen said they felt comfortable on the big stage. 

“At the end of the day, it’s just another hockey game,” said senior defenseman Brock Matheson. “It’s the same boards, same ice, same refs … everything’s the same. I think there’s a tendency obviously for it to get built up a little bit, but I think we did a pretty good job of just seeing it for what it was. Obviously we weren’t successful tonight but I think we did a good job preparing for this tournament and preparing for the fact that this was our first tournament. We had the right mindset going into it.” 

Blonde ambition: The mascot of the Minnesota-Duluth hockey team is the Bulldog, but it might as well be the golden retriever. All but one UMD player dyed his hair blonde in an exercise of team unity. The lone holdout is Kyle Schmidt, who at least managed a few blonde highlights in his brown hair. Why didn’t Schmidt go blonde? Because he’s getting married in a few months, and with some pre-wedding pictures scheduled in the near future he didn’t want to look too ridiculous, he said. 

FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG 

Western power: Minnesota Duluth was certainly not intimidated headed into the East Regional. UMD is now 7-0-1 all-time against Union; 3-0 against Air Force; and 5-1 against Yale. 

Capital disappointment: Union was making its first NCAA tourney appearance since joining the Division I ranks in 1991-92. The last time the Capital District of New York was represented in the NCAA field was 1995 when RPI appeared. 

Ohhh-vertime: Air Force may have the distinction of owning the most consecutive overtime losses in NCAA tourney play. The Falcons lost to Miami in 2008, Vermont in double OT in 2009, and Yale in 2011. 

INCH’S THREE STARS OF THE NIGHT 

3. UMD’s penalty kill unit: Union had the nation’s top power play unit until a gutty troupe of Bulldogs held the Dutchmen scoreless on nine chances. It’s not as though Union didn’t have any chances as the Dutchmen took 17 of their 32 shot attempts with the man advantage. 

2. Kenny Reiter, Minnesota Duluth: Reiter was brilliant when he had to be and darn consistent the rest of the way, making 32 stops in all for his third shutout of the season. He made three stops on Union’s first power play opportunity of the game, and gave his team a much-needed boost. 

1. Chad Ziegler, Yale: Facing elimination in overtime, Ziegler came up with one of the biggest goals of his career to keep the Bulldogs alive for a Frozen Four berth. 

PLUSSES AND MINUSES 

Kudos to the college hockey fans of New England. Yale, located in nearby New Haven, filled more than three-quarters of the arena for the nightcap. Union fans also traveled well, filling a couple sections for the afternoon contest. 

UMD coach Scott Sandelin cautioned Thursday that his team could not afford to take unnecessary penalties. The Bulldogs got away with a few needless infractions in the victory over Union. There’s a fine line between being physical and getting caught up in the frenzy. UMD has to play a bit more in control in order to avoid getting burned by another strong power play in Yale. 

WHAT’S NEXT 

It’s Minnesota vs. New England for the East Region final. 

Minnesota Duluth is 10-8 in NCAA Tournament play and 4-5 in quarterfinal action. The Bulldogs last reached the Frozen Four in 2004, beating Minnesota in the quarterfinals and losing to Denver in the semis. In 2009, UMD beat Princeton in the opening round but lost to eventual runner-up Miami in the regional finals. 

“It’s an opportunity we had two years ago that we let slip away,” said UMD’s Justin Fontaine. “(Saturday) will be another big game for us. We want to get to that final tournament. That has been our goal all year. This game was a huge character builder.” 

Yale is 3-4 in NCAA play. The Bulldogs have actually never played their way into the national semifinals—Yale was placed into the 1952 semis and lost to Colorado College. Yale lost regional semifinals in 1998 and 2009 and bowed to Boston College, 9-7, in the Northeast Region final in 2010.