Minnesota State beats Minnesota to reach Frozen Four final

BOSTON (AP) — Reggie Lutz broke a second-period tie and Minnesota State scored three times in the third in the Frozen Four semifinal on Thursday night to beat big-city rival Minnesota 5-1 and advance to the national championship game.

Minnesota State will play for its first NCAA hockey title Saturday night against Denver, which beat Michigan 3-2 in overtime in the the early semifinal.

“We’ll see,” Mavericks coach Mike Hastings said. “We'll take a kick at the can on Saturday.”

Hobey Baker Award finalist Dryden McKay stopped 16 shots for the Mavericks to earn his 38th win of the season. Benton Maass, Ondrej Pavel, David Silye and Brendan Furry also scored for Minnesota State.

“For big parts of the game, they kicked our butt,” Minnesota coach Bob Motzko said. “They scored exactly how we knew we had to defend. And then we were chasing the entire game.”

Justen Close made 27 saves for Minnesota before he was pulled for an extra skater with 3:51 left. But the Gophers, who have five NCAA championships in their Twin Cities trophy case, couldn't convert.

Furry delivered an empty-netter to seal the victory over the Mavericks' bigger, more decorated rivals.

“They’re the first team people think of, and they always will be,” McKay said. “I think it’s just kind of a cherry on top to beat them.”

In a Frozen Four of bluebloods that have combined for 22 NCAA titles, Minnesota State is the only school that has yet to win one. But the Mankato-based Mavericks were the winningest team in the country this year and the only one of the four to have reached the national semifinals last year as well.

Minnesota took the lead with 11 minutes left in the first period when MSU turned it over in the neutral zone to set up a two-on-none against the