Denver wins national championship on Lukosevicius hat trick

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CHICAGO — Denver’s Jarid Lukosevicius scored the first hat trick in an NCAA title game since his coach Jim Montgomery did it for Maine in 1993, leading the Pioneers to a 3-2 win over Minnesota Duluth for the 2017 NCAA national championship.

Lukosevicius’ first two goals came just 16 seconds apart, the fastest two goals by the same player in a national championship game.

Lukosevicius deflected a shot by Michael Davies at 4:44 of the second and poked in a goal-mouth feed from Troy Terry at 5:00. His third goal again came on the doorstep as he buried a pass from Dylan Gambrell at 12:23.

Duluth’s Alex Iafallo scored on the power play at 7:16 of the second period, putting home a feed from Joey Anderson to cut the Denver lead at that point to 2-1.

Riley Tufte cut the Denver lead to 3-2 with 5:21 left in the third. A shot from Avery Peterson from a sharp angle clanked off the post and dropped to the far side of the crease, well wide of Denver goalie Tanner Jaillet. Tufte reached out to poke it in.

Minnesota Duluth outshot Denver 17-3 in the third period and 40-28 in the game.

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