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SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Ryan Massa made 33 saves and Nebraska-Omaha beat Harvard 4-1 on Saturday night in the Midwest Regional semifinals of the NCAA hockey tournament.
Omaha (19-12-6) won for the first time in the NCAA playoffs. It will face Rochester Institute of Technology on Sunday for a spot in the Frozen Four in Boston. RIT upset top-seeded Minnesota State-Mankato 2-1 in the first semifinal.
"I'm certainly proud of the guys and the way we performed tonight," Omaha coach Dean Blais said. "We took care of the puck. That was a goal that we had talked about, even a month ago, that we cannot keep turning the puck over. The guys did a great job."
Grant Gallo and Avery Peterson scored first-period goals for the Mavericks.
Jimmy Vesey scored for Harvard (21-13-3) early in the third, his national-best 32nd of the season.
Tyler Vesel and Jake Guentzel had empty-net goals in the final minute.
"It's a big win for our program, obviously being the first NCAA win in the tournament," defenseman Brian O'Rourke said. "We are pretty excited with the way we played tonight. It was a really great game. Both teams showed up with a lot of speed and a lot of jam. We know RIT is going to come out and play pretty physical and they are going to be a tough opponent tomorrow."
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