The UMD Bulldogs returned to the Frozen Four Thursday night, appearing for the first time since their 2011 campaign that ended with a National Championship. Opposing the Bulldogs on the ice to open the 2017 Frozen Four was the Harvard Crimson. This would be the first meeting between the Bulldogs and Crimson in over 21 years.

The Crimson came into the game with one of the highest-scoring offensive units in the country. Hunter Miska and the Bulldogs defense would look to keep them at bay and get some offense of their own going to advance to another championship game.

In the opening frame, the Bulldogs generally outplayed the Crimson. Shots were pretty even between the two teams, however UMD faced three penalty kill situations in the first versus having only one power play opportunity. The Bulldogs were able to kill off two of those penalties, but the third led to a power play goal for Harvard to tally the first goal of the game at the 15 minute mark. Joey Anderson found the net for UMD as the opening period drew to a close to bring the game to a 1-1 tie.

The second period was pretty evenly matched between the two teams, with no scoring in the frame. The third period saw a slight shots advantage in favor of Harvard, however the period ended with only one more goal between the two teams. Alex Iafallo scored with just under 30 seconds left in the game to give UMD the lead and ultimately the victory.

#2 UMD will face off against #1 Denver in the championship game on Saturday night after Denver won 6-1 over Notre Dame. The National Championship game will be played at 7:00 pm on Saturday night in Chicago, televised on ESPN.

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