When a few weeks have passed, and the sting of losing 3-2 to Boston University subsides, the UMD Bulldogs players will appreciate their strong effort in the Northeastern Regional of the NCAA hockey tournament. Particularly their stunning 4-1 romp over arch-rival Minnesota in the region’s semifinals.

The Frozen Four, in Boston, will go on without the Bulldogs, but the NCHC will be heartily represented by North Dakota and Nebraska-Omaha. The hockey tournament takes a weekend off, then convenes in Boston on Friday and Sunday next week, with North Dakota, the nation’s new No. 1 team, taking on Hockey East season and tournament champion Boston University in one semifinal, while UNO faces Hockey East upstart Providence in the other.

In my estimation, after watching all four regionals as closely as my satellite television would allow, I would say the old cliche about needing a hot goaltender to go all the way is fitting for both Omaha and North Dakota. Zane McIntyre is North Dakota’s ace in the goal, and he was solid against Quinnipiac in the 4-1 West Region semifinals, and he snuffed St. Cloud State by the same 4-1 count in the final.
St. Cloud State had overcome a powerful performance by Michigan Tech to win in the semifinals when Tech failed to hit an open net on two good chances, then Jonny Brodzinski tied the game with 38 seconds left, and Judd Peterson, who played at Marshall, scored the winner on a 2-on-1 rush after Tech’s defenseman lost an edge and fell down trying to hold the point. The Huskies had beaten North Dakota 3-1 in the NCHC tournament semifinals, but never got rolling against North Dakota in the West Region final.

Nebraska-Omaha, the youngest team in the tournament, rode the brilliant goaltending of Ryan Massa to a 4-1 victory over Harvard in the Midwest Regional, then he came back with a spectacular 40-save shutout to eliminate tournament upstart RIT. The Rochester Institute of Technology was on a roll, taking out No. 1 MSU-Mankato 2-1 before running smack into Massa, who simply stopped everything. Mankato had to struggle in the face of RIT’s determined play, but could still have won except for a controversial call.

With 5:51 remaining in the third period of a 1-1 game, RIT’s Matt Garbowsky went for the net from the right side, as teammate Josh Mitchell carried in behind him. Garbowsky was covered by Mankato defenseman Zach Palmquist, and Garbowsky did what wise attackers always do. He was going to come as close to goaltender Stephon Williams as he could, so he applied a small hip-check to Palmquist, who fell over Williams. As the two landed on their backsides, Mitchell shot the puck in on the far side. The officials reviewed and re-reviewed it many times, and finally declared that the impact between Garbowsky and Palmquist was initiated by Palmquist, therefore knocking down his own goaltender was an accident, not an infraction. The goal stood, and RIT, outshot 34-19, won the game 2-1.

Nebraska-Omaha didn’t exactly blow out RIT. The game was scoreless into the third period when Duluth East grad Jake Randolph took a back pass and blasted a 40-foot rocket into the RIT goal. In the closing minutes, UNO scored twice more, then finished with an empty-net clincher for the 4-0 victory.

For the record, there were seven assists along with the four goals, and all 11 UNO points were recorded by freshmen.

Aside from UND and UNO, there was disappointment from the West, with NCHC hopefuls Denver, St. Cloud State, and Miami of Ohio joining UMD on the outside of the Frozen Four, looking in. Denver eased past Boston College 5-2 while Providence outlasted Miami 7-5 in the East semifinals. Miami trailed 6-2, but Rico Blase pulled his goalie with 12:48 to go and his Redhawks rallied for three goals in an incredible finish, closing to 6-5 before an empty-net goal. Providence then flat outhustled Denver in a 4-1 final to gain the Frozen Four.

UMD’s final disappointment had to be weighed against the season highlight of the Northeast Region’s semifinal romp against the Gophers, with all four goals scored or set up by defensemen. The ESPN announcers were continuing to rave about Minnesota’s Mike Reilly as a Hobey Baker finalist on defense and how well he and his teammates rush up so well from defense. Just then, UMD’s Willie Raskob charged in from the right point, turned the puck over, carried deep into the corner, and fired a perfect pass through two Gopher defensemen caught gawking, and it went right to Tony Cameranesi for a back-door goal at 12:49 of the first period.

Defenseman Brenden Kotyk next rifled a shot from the right point that Justin Crandall deflected in, and it was 2-0 at 15:27. At 18:48, Raskob struck again, corralling the puck and circling across center ice before racing in on the left side for a shot, then banging his own rebound in a pinball action that finally glanced in off Reilly’s skate to beat heralded Gopher goaltender Adam Wilcox.

The 3-0 lead became 4-0 when defenseman Carson Soucy scored with a left point bullet. The Gophers broke Kasimir Kaskisuo’s shutout bid when captain Seth Ambroz scored with 4:54 to play. That goal snapped an impressive string by the Bulldogs. In their first meeting of the season, at South Bend in the Ice-Breaker Tournament, Minnesota grabbed a 3-0 lead before hanging on to win 4-3. Then the Bulldogs swept 3-0 and 2-1 victories in a home-and-home series, before UMD also won 2-1 in the third-place game of the January Xcel Center invitational. Adding those up, from the time of Minnesota’s first-game lead through the first four goals in Manchester, meant UMD had outscored the Gophers 14-3 in winning four straight games.

In the region final, the tight battle with BU came down to another questionable call, in the closing minutes with the score 2-2. UMD’s Andy Welinski checked a BU forward along the corner boards, and the Terrier cleverly grasped Welinski’s stick releasing it as he started to fall. Welinski let go of his stick, and fell on top of him, but when one official saw Welinski’s arm still around his adversary he called holding. Alex Rodrigues’s second goal of the game was a magnificent toe-drag and shot from the slot with 2:24 remaining. One second left in Welinski’s penalty.

It got worse when the final Bulldog assault for the equalizer found captain Adam Krause with a shot from the right slot. Krause followed up amid a tangle of bodies at the crease, but the whistle had not blown. After the bodies were unpiled, with 23.3 seconds left, the officials gathered to review replays for several minutes. The overhead view, shown on television, showed goaltender Matt O’Connor sliding back into his goal, and when he lifted up, there was the puck, about six inches across the goal line. Often, in such cases, the officials would rule that a goal. This time, being unsure when the puck crossed the line compared to the whistle being blown, they ruled it no goal.

Harsh as those memories might be, they will fade soon enough. And the warm glow of the semifinal victory over the Gophers will shine on.