Last Minute Goal Lifts Minnesota Duluth Over North Dakota In Frozen Faceoff

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Duluth's Joey Anderson bounced a shot off the skate of North Dakota's Hayden Shaw and into the net for the game-winning goal with 51 seconds left as the Bulldogs beat the Hawks 4-3 Saturday in the championship game of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference Frozen Faceoff.

The game fittingly ended on a power play, as the teams were assessed 27 penalties and UMD had players in the penalty box for 33 of the 60 minutes. North Dakota had four 5-on-3 advantages.

Anderson's power-play goal - the Bulldogs' second of the game - came from the left corner and deflected off Shaw's blade and through the pads of goalie Cam Johnson.

"I was just lucky enough to be the one to throw it in," Anderson said. "After (UND's) goal went in there with about three minutes left, we kept our composure."

Trevor Olson scored on the power play with just over two minutes to play.

The Fighting Hawks (21-15-3) were 3-for-10 on the power play and skated four times 5-on-3. The Bulldogs (25-6-7) were 2-for-7. Anderson's goal came moments after a 5-on-3 expired.

"I'm certainly proud of our team," UMD coach Scott Sandelin said. "We've won a lot of games different ways and this is another example of a little bit of adversity. When we needed big plays the guys stepped up."

Dominic Toninato, Riley Tufte and Adam Johnson scored in a span of 58 seconds of the second period as the Bulldogs came back from a 1-0 deficit after one period.

Olson, Brock Boeser and Tyson Jost scored for UND, which got 19 saves from Johnson.

Hunter Miska had 32 saves for UMD.

Boeser staked UND to a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 10:57 of the first period.

Boeser sent a pass across ice to Jost, who drew the defense to him and sent a pass back to Boeser, who was all alone on the weak side. Boeser scored easy past Bulldogs' Miska.

Late in the period, Johnson was run over by Neal Pionk resulting in a five-minute power play. But UND didn't capitalize, and things went downhill for the Fighting Hawks from there.

Toninato scored 1:30 into the second period from in close. Tufte scored on UMD's next rush up ice, skating around UND's Christian Wolanin and breaking in alone 17 seconds later for a 2-1 lead. Just 41 seconds later, Adam Johnson scored for 3-1 lead.

"We were fortunate to get a lot of power plays that period," Anderson said. "Obviously, the rest of the game was not going to be like that."

But it was. There were 12 penalties called in the third period, two on UND in the last two minutes, setting up Anderson's goal.

UND also played the last half of the game without injured defenseman Tucker Poolman.

The Bulldogs are 5-0 against UND this season.

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