FARGO, N.D. — Luke Mylymok’s wrist shot at 2:13 of the fifth overtime period ended the longest game in NCAA tournament history as Minnesota Duluth defeated North Dakota, 3-2, to advance to the Frozen Four.
For 40 minutes, the battle between old rivals North Dakota and Minnesota Duluth was deadlocked at 0-0. The Bulldogs jumped out to a 2-0 lead in just 80 seconds in the third period, only to have the Fighting Hawks tie the game with two extra-attacker goals in 47 seconds Saturday at Scheels Arena in Fargo, North Dakota.
From there, the game remained 2-2 in overtime. The game is headed for a fifth overtime period. It is now the longest all-time NCAA Tournament game.
Bulldogs head coach Scott Sandelin started freshman goaltender Zach Stejskal over sophomore Ryan Fanti. For over 58 minutes, the move proved brilliant as Stejskal, who was playing in his eighth game of the season, held the Fighting Hawks offense off the scoreboard until the 18:19 mark of the third when center Collin Adams banked a puck past him from below the goal line with goaltender Adam Scheel watching from the bench.
The Bulldogs iced the puck shortly after, giving the Fighting Hawks another faceoff in the offensive zone with goaltender Adam Scheel on the bench. Captain Jordan Kawaguchi set himself up in the right circle. When the puck came to him, he wasted no time burying it behind Stejskal at 19:03.
The common denominator on both Fighting Hawks goals to even the game was center Shane Pinto. On Adams’ goal, defenseman Jake Sanderson fed the puck over to Pinto along the left boards. Pinto one-timed the pass and Stejskal directed the rebound below the goal line, where Adams jumped on it.
On the second goal, assistant captain Matt Kiersted made a similar pass to Pinto, whose shot from almost the same place he shot from earlier caromed over to Kawaguchi.
The Bulldogs had broken the scoreless tie 3:21 into the third when winger Koby Bender won a puck battle in the corner to Scheel’s left. He threw the puck back to defenseman Hunter Lellig at the right point. Lellig fired a wrist shot that center Jackson Cates tipped out of the air and past Scheel.
Just 80 seconds later, assistant captain Cole Koepke blocked a shot from Fighting Hawks defenseman Ethan Frisch. The puck bounced out of the zone and Koepke drove hard past Frisch, got to the puck, skated in alone from the red line and beat Scheel with a wrist shot.
The Bulldogs appeared to score the game-winner goal 7:38 into the first overtime, but upon review, it was determined that Bender, who was driving the puck into the offensive zone, crossed the blue line without full control of the puck, negating the goal scored shortly after winger Kobe Roth.