Yale beats North Dakota in NCAA tournament
Denny Kearney had two goals, Mark Arcobello also scored, and Ryan Rondeau made 34 saves to help Yale beat North Dakota 3-2 on Saturday in the NCAA Northeast Regional semifinals.
Third-seeded Yale (21-9-3) will face top-seeded Boston College on Sunday for a berth in the Frozen Four at Ford Field in Detroit. The Bulldogs' only appearance in the final four came in 1952 when they lost to Colorado College in the semifinals.
Kearney and Arcobello scored in a 4:57 span in the second period to give Yale a 3-0 lead. Brett Hextall and Matt Frattin scored early in the third period for North Dakota (25-13-5).
``A lot of people weren't expecting much out of us,'' Yale defenseman Ryan Donald said. ``We're kind of playing with house money. We played the underdog role pretty well and we were a little more looser than usual.''
Kearney took a pass from Kevin Lambert at the bottom of the left circle, shifted quickly from right to left and slipped a shot behind goalie Brad Eidsness to make it 2-0 at 12:49 of the second.
The Bulldogs, the Eastern College Athletic Conference regular-season champions, made it 3-0 when Arcobello collected a rebound off the backboards and slipped a shot inside the right post.
``We got off to a slow start the first two periods and they took advantage of it and got up 3-0,'' North Dakota defenseman Derrick LaPoint said. ``You can't really put a finger on it. Some days you have it and some days you don't.''
The Fighting Sioux, making their eighth straight NCAA appearance and 25th overall, scored twice in the opening 6 minutes of the third to get close.
Yale coach Keith Allain called timeout to settle his team down.
``We reminded our guys that if they wanted to be champions they'd have to go through tough times,'' he said.
North Dakota's Darcy Zajac fired a shot off the left post on a penalty shot late in the second period.
The Fighting Sioux won 12 of their final 13 games heading into the NCAA tourney.
