MINNESOTA DULUTH 3, MICHIGAN 2 (OT) | Box Score
By Warren Kozireski
Kyle Schmidt, right, scored the overtime winner for the Bulldogs
Senior Kyle Schmidt buried a no-look, backhand pass from behind the net to the slot from Travis Oleksuk at 3:22 of the first overtime to give Minnesota Duluth a 3-2 victory over Michigan and the school’s first Division I men’s hockey championship.
Michigan held the play early and had an apparent first-period goal disallowed when it was ruled that the puck crossed the goal line after the whistle had blown, but were able to take a 1-0 lead by using their 13-7 first period faceoff advantage to get on the scoreboard first.
Senior Matt Rust won an offensive zone draw back to classmate Ben Winnett who took one stride to his right and put the puck stick side into the net at 14:42 for the only scoring of the period.
The Bulldogs came out of the locker room for the second period flying and were able to tie the game at 1:39. Junior defenseman Brady Lamb faked a slapshot from the right point and skated around the forward. His wrister was blocked in front but the rebound went right to Oleksuk who put it in for his 14th goal of the season.
At 8:30 of the second, Bulldogs defenseman Drew Olson swatted away a puck heading for the goal line behind Bulldogs netminder Kenny Reiter and his teammates took the lead on the power play one minute later.
Max Tardy gathered a pass down low from Mike Seidel and scored on his own rebound for his first collegiate goal to put Minnesota Duluth up 2-1 at 9:31.
Michigan tied the game at 2-2 late in the second as Greg Pateryn’s shot from the left point was blocked but right to the stick of Jeff Rohrkemper who put his backhander in the net for his third goal of the year at 17:46.
In the second half of a carefully played third period, the Bulldogs went on the power play where J.T. Brown fed Mike Connolly for a backhander that hit the goaltender and rolled toward the net until Wolverines defenseman Pateryn swatted it away at the last instant.
Michigan then countered short-handed with Carl Hagelin feeding a cross-slot pass to Louie Caporusso, whose redirect was knocked away by a sprawling Reiter with his left leg pad.
The two teams played the rest of the third period to a draw sending the game into overtime leading to Schmidt’s goal with assists from Oleksuk and defenseman Brad Lamb.
The game marked the 15th extra session game and their seventh OT victory of the season for the Bulldogs.
The title for Minnesota-Duluth also denotes a first-time champion for the first time in 18 years when the University of Maine won their inaugural title in 1993.
TITLE WIN COMES WITH PERSONAL CONNECTIONS FOR BULLDOGS
By Jess Myers
It was some unfortunate in-arena geography that had Minnesota Duluth’s assistant coaches positioned in a pressbox radio booth where directly in front of them, right in their line of sight, was the NCAA banner commemorating Bowling Green’s 1984 national title.
Bill Watson was on the ice that night in Lake Placid, where the Bulldogs made their only other title-game appearance, and fell to the Falcons in four over times. In the jubilant Bulldogs locker room after this game, Watson was asked when he finally got over that 1984 loss. The 1985 Hobey winner glanced at his watch and said, “About 16 minutes ago.”
In his locker room stall, his eyes wet with tears, Jack Connolly recalled another Frozen Four title game that had ended in overtime. Just two years ago he’d been inside the Verizon Center in downtown D.C. and had seen his older brother, Chris, win a title for the Terriers as a freshman. Tonight, it was little brother’s turn.
“He’s been by role model as a hockey player growing up. Seeing him win one his freshman year was a phenomenal moment for him and I couldn’t have been more proud of him,” Jack said. “For me to be able to get one in the family as well, to have two rings at our house now, not a whole lot of families can say that they have two kids that have both won national championships. It’s pretty surreal right now.”
Bulldog senior captain Mike Montgomery, who hails from a suburb of St. Paul, said it was hard to fathom what had just happened, ending his college career this way, so close to home.
“There are so many things going through my head,” he said. “At one second it feels like you have electricity going through your veins and at the next second you feel exhausted. It’s unbelievable.”
When the Frozen Four comes to Tampa next season, there will be a new banner hanging from the ceiling with Minnesota Duluth – 2011 on it. By then, they’ll believe it.
EFFORT THERE, EXECUTION NOT FOR MICHIGAN
By James V. Dowd
Kenny Reiter made his biggest save on this third-period chance from Louie Caporusso.
Having advanced to the NCAA Championship game via defensive success and opportunistic offense against North Dakota, Colorado College and Nebraska-Omaha, Michigan didn’t expect to do anything different in trying to knock of Minnesota Duluth and win the national title.
The Bulldogs, like North Dakota and Colorado College, boast a dynamic top line and some formidable secondary scoring depth, and so the Wolverines wanted to attack them as they had their previous opponents. Minnesota Duluth had something to say about that, preventing Michigan from moving the puck up the ice and sustaining any consistent pressure.
Even as Michigan got back into the game after falling down 2-1, the Wolverines fell back into a defensive shell, failing to move the puck through the neutral zone to challenge the Bulldogs in their own end.
“I don’t know what it was,” Michigan forward Louie Caporusso said. “We turned into a shutdown type of team, we would get a goal and then sit back on it and that’s what we did against North Dakota and had success with it. We had success against Colorado College, but come Duluth, we did put on the pressure, but we just couldn’t do it.”
Caporusso credited Minnesota Duluth with helping get Michigan off its game like North Dakota was unable to do.
“I don’t think we were playing bad, but we weren’t playing good,” Caporusso said. “For whatever reason we didn’t sustain any pressure for a long period of time. You have to give them credit, they brought the speed, they brought the jump, they brought better pace than we did.”
The Bulldogs outshot Michigan in each period and in overtime, they won 51 of 89 faceoffs, compounding Caporusso’s frustration of losing the title to a team the senior felt was not as strong as the one Michigan beat Thursday night.
“I thought they were a really, really good team,” Caporusso said. “I thought North Dakota was better, to be honest, I thought North Dakota was the better of those two teams. But for whatever reason we beat North Dakota but couldn’t shut down this team.”
2011 FROZEN FOUR ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
F – J.T. Brown, Minnesota Duluth *
F – Kyle Schmidt, Minnesota Duluth
F – Ben Winnett, Michigan
D – Justin Faulk, Minnesota Duluth
D – Jon Merrill, Michigan
G – Shawn Hunwick, Michigan
* = Most Outstanding Player
