BUFFALO, N.Y. - Freshman defenseman Marc Del Gaizo rocketed home a one-timer from the point with 4:42 left in the first overtime period to lift University of Massachusetts hockey over Denver, 4-3, early Friday morning in the NCAA National Semifinal at KeyBank Center. Del Gaizo's tally, his 13th of the season, sends the Minutemen into NCAA National Championship game for the first time in program history with a record of 31-9-0, whiere the Minutemen will face Minnesota-Duluth Saturday night at 8 p.m. for the national title.

"This team, all year long they've impressed everybody," said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. "Tonight was just the next chapter of how resilient they are. I thought overtime, we were down, we lost two players, two forwards, playing three lines. We went deep into that overtime period. We played three lines for almost two periods, and the kids dug deep, once again, proved the resiliency, proved the culture that we have on our team is our strength and carries us, and it did again tonight."

Del Gaizo rocketed the game-winner in from the top of the left faceoff circle, a shot that snuck under the glove of the Pioneers goalie to clinch the overtime victory for the Minutemen. Sophomore Oliver Chau sent a backhander out to the point to set up the tally and sophomore Jake Gaudet picked up the secondary helper on the play.

The Minutemen found themselves down a man early in the contest as junior captain Niko Hildenbrand was assessed a five minute major penalty and a game misconduct for head contact with 13:36 remaining in the first. Two minutes and five seconds later, despite a pair of big saves from Filip Lindberg and a sprawling effort from Jake McLaughlin in the crease to keep the puck out of the UMass goal, Denver's Kohen Olischefski was able to poke it in to give his team a 1-0 advantage. The tally snapped a streak of 35 straight penalties killed for the Minutemen, dating back to February 16 at Boston College.

UMass soon found itself with a 5-on-3 advantage as the Pioneer's Jarid Lukosevicius was called for tripping at 10:47 and Tyson McLellan was issued a holding call 29 seconds later. With a two-man advantage, Bobby Trivigno promptly knotted things up at 1-1 with 8:19 to go in the opening frame. The freshman stationed himself at the top of Pioneer netminder Filip Larsson's crease and tipped in a shot off the stick of Jacob Pritchard, giving the senior his 30th helper of the season. It marked the 13th goal of the year for Trivigno and Del Gaizo collected the secondary assist.

Less than a minute after the Minutemen evened things up, the squad went back to a 5-on-3 advantage after Denver's Ryan Barrow was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct. With 6:56 to play in the first, Mitchell Chaffee found the back of the net for the team-leading 18th time this year and seventh time on the power play to give UMass a 2-1 lead. With plenty of time and space, Pritchard found Cale Makar on the left point who dished the puck to the slot where Chaffee was waiting to fire it into a wide-open cage.

It took only 18 seconds for the Minutemen to expand their advantage on yet another power-play goal as John Leonard pocketed his 16th tally of the season and seventh on the man-advantage. Mario Ferraro sent the puck to Leonard in the high slot and Leonard beat Larsson glove side to extend the UMass lead to 3-1 at 13:22 of the first period. It marked Leonard's third consecutive game with a goal and Jake Gaudet picked up the secondary assist.

Both teams stayed off the score sheet in the second period and the Pioneers held the advantage in shots on goal, 9-7. The Minutemen went down another forward for the remainder of the game, though, as Mitchell Chaffee was whistled on for a major and a game misconduct for head contact.

After 42:03 of action without a goal, Denver its deficit to 3-2, 10:32 into the third. Cole Gutman picked up the puck in the corner from Tyler Ward and wheeled around the left faceoff circle to snap a shot from near the inside hashmarks that found its way into the top left corner. Sophomore winger Jake Durflinger was credited with the secondary helper.

Gutman added his second of the night for the equalizer 16:14 into the third period in a scrum in front Lindberg's crease that knotted the score at 3-3 and sent the teams into an extra frame.

The Minutemen went 3-for-5 on the power play against the Pioneers, while holding Denver to a 1-for-5 mark. The shots on goal fell in favor of the Pioneers 40-28, with Larsson stopping 24 shots and Lindberg recording a season-high 37 saves.

Pritchard and Gaudet finished the contest with two assists apiece, while Del Gaizo had a goal and an assist for his sixth multi-point game of the year.

UMass will play for the national title for the first time in program history on Saturday, April 13, at 8 p.m. against Minnesota Duluth back at KeyBank Center on ESPN2.