Minnesota-Duluth Wins 2018 NCAA Men's Hockey Title

The last team into the tournament was the last team left standing.

For the first time since 2011, the University of Minnesota-Duluth is the NCAA Division I men's ice hockey national champion. The Bulldogs outlasted Notre Dame, 2-1, on Saturday before a sold-out crowd of 18,303 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. The national title is the second in UMD men's hockey history, while the Fighting Irish was seeking its first NCAA championship.

UMD (25-16-3 overall) took a 1-0 lead on a goal by senior captain Karson Kuhlman just over nine minutes into the first period, then assisted on the game-winning goal by Jared Thomas just over nine-and-a-half minutes later. Big Ten champion Notre Dame (28-10-2) got back within one on a score by Andrew Oglevie 7:40 into the second period, but was shut down by the Bulldogs the rest of the way.

Cale Morris, who won the 2018 Mike Richter Award as college hockey's top goaltender, finished with 33 saves for the Irish, while Hunter Shepard made 19 stops for the Bulldogs. UMD also outshot the Irish, 35-20, and went 0-for-3 on the power play, while Notre Dame was 1-for-2 with a man advantage.

UMD finished as national runner-up to Denver last year, dropping a 3-2 decision in last year's championship game in Chicago, after Notre Dame had fallen to DU in the semifinals. The Bulldogs edged Michigan, 3-2, in overtime in the 2011 NCAA championship game, also in St. Paul, after first ousting the Irish in a semifinal match, while Notre Dame dropped a 4-1 decision to Boston College in the 2008 national title tilt in Denver. The Bulldogs and Irish both advanced to this year’s championship contest with Frzoen Four national semifinal triumphs on Thursday, with UMD topping Ohio State, 2-1, and Notre Dame outlasting Michigan, 4-3.

The Bulldogs received the last at-large bid into this year's 16-team NCAA Tournament by .0001 percentage point over in-state rival Minnesota, according to the Pairwise Rankings that mimic the NCAA's selection process. UMD's victory Saturday also marked three consecutive NCAA titles for the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, following Denver last year and North Dakota in 2016.