The title of this post had to be changed from "Bracket-Buster Friday" after UMD's impossible comeback against Princeton Friday evening in the West Regional Semifinal in Minneapolis. On a day in which the top seeds in the West and East Regionals both lost in rather convincing fashion and the underdog won in the other East semifinal, the Bulldogs' comeback was the biggest shocker.
Princeton led UMD 4-2 with less than a minute remaining in the game. Jack Connolly's power play goal with less than 40 seconds remaining cut the deficit to one, and Evan Oberg's desperation shot at the net found its way past Princeton goaltender Zane Kalemba with 0.8 seconds remaining to force OT. Kalemba gloved the puck with less than 5 ticks remaining and elected to throw the puck toward the corner to avoid a face off to his left. The puck was thrown blindly in front by Mike Connolly, was deflected by MacGregor Sharp, and ended up on Oberg's stick. In a sequence which seemed like 5 minutes rather than 5 seconds, UMD tied the game and left the Tigers shell shocked.
Mike Connolly capped the amazing comeback with a power play goal at 13:39 of overtime to send UMD to the West Regional Final. The amazing final minute of regulation play is here, via YouTube.
- UMD will play Miami of Ohio, which man-handled top-seeded Denver 4-2 in the "Gwozdecky Bowl," featuring Denver coach's George Gwozdecky's current and former teams.
- In the East Regional, Air Force shocked top-seeded Michigan 2-0, with Andrew Volkening stopping 43 shots to post the shutout.
- The Falcons will face Vermont, which beat Yale 4-1 in a mild upset.
What an opening act to the NCAA Tournament! We were 0.8 seconds from lower seeds winning all four games. Do you think Boston U and Notre Dame will dare overlook their #4 seeds today?
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