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SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Ryan Massa made 40 saves and Nebraska-Omaha beat Rochester Institute of Technology 4-0 on Sunday night in the NCAA Midwest Regional final to reach the Frozen Four for the first time.
Omaha (20-12-6) will face Providence in the semifinals in Boston on April 9. Boston University will play North Dakota in the other semifinal.
Jake Randolph opened the scoring at 1:01 of the third period and Austin Ortega, Justin Parizek and David Pope — into an empty net — added goals in the final 4 1/2 minutes.
"I'm certainly very proud of this team and what they've accomplished — going to Boston in two weeks," said Dean Blais, the sixth-season Nebraska-Omaha coach who led North Dakota to NCAA titles in 1997 and 2000. "It was a tough game tonight."
Massa made 18 saves in the third period.
"Going into that third period, us four seniors stood up and took charge of that locker room," Massa said. "We removed all doubt from every guy in that room. Randy (Randolph) came out ... and I don't know how he did it, he doesn't even do that in practice, but he found a way to hit that pipe and put it in and then the floodgates just opened."
On Saturday night, Massa made 33 saves in a 4-1 victory over Harvard — the Mavericks' first win in the NCAA playoffs. RIT (20-15-5) beat Minnesota State-Mankato 2-1 in the semifinals, the first time the 16th-seeded team has beaten the No. 1 overall seed in the history of the tournament.
"I thought it was a great hockey game, and I am very proud of the way we played," RIT coach Wayne Wilson said. "Congratulations to Omaha. They played well and their goaltender was outstanding. I thought we created a lot of chances. Obviously, we are disappointed with tonight's outcome, but I'm proud of what we accomplished this weekend against two really good opponents."
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