UMass cruises past Notre Dame, advances to 1st Frozen Four ever
Goalie Filip Lindberg needed to make only 13 saves for the Minutemen.
MANCHESTER, N.H. — UMass’s dominant hockey team throttled overmatched Notre Dame, 4-0, to win the NCAA Northeast Regional title at SNHU Arena Saturday night and advance to next month’s Frozen Four in Buffalo, where they’ll meet the winner of the AIC-Denver game in the semifinals.
The Minutemen (30-9-0), who’ll be making their first appearance among the championship quartet, staggered the Irish (23-14-3) with three goals within seven minutes during the second period.
Ticket 👊@UMassHockey is the first team to book a trip to Buffalo for the #FrozenFour!#NCAAHockey pic.twitter.com/1EfD6q46bt
— NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) March 31, 2019
The first goal, at 7:49, came on their potent power play, with Jake Gaudet whipping a wrister to the far post from the right circle. The second, at 10:32, came on a rebound by Amherst native John Leonard, who was all alone in front with ample time to deke goalie Cale Morris and flip the puck past him.
The knockout punch at 14:49 came from defenseman Cale Makar, who blasted an unstoppable, if not unseeable, slapper from the left point. Oliver Chau added an empty-netter for punctuation at 17:27 of the final period.
UMass goalie Filip Lindberg, who’d shut out Harvard by the same score under similar circumstances on Friday night, needed to make only 13 saves.
