The National Collegiate Hockey Conference Frozen Faceoff championship may have slipped through its grasp, but there is still plenty left for the University of Minnesota Duluth to play for this season.

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The No. 16 Bulldogs were ambushed 3-1 by No. 4 St. Cloud State University Saturday night in the NCHC playoff title bout, but they'll live to fight another day as they all but secured a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in six years. That event starts next weekend at four regional sites and the 16-team field will be announced at 11 a.m. this Sunday on ESPNU.

"Our focus was on this game," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin. "You get opportunities to play for a championship and you want to win. Our guys were certainly focused on that, but it kind of got away from us. Now, we have another chance with the NCAA playoffs and we need to go on another run"

UMD, which came into the night riding a seven-game winning streak after knocking off top-ranked University of North Dakota in Friday's semifinals, drew first blood on Carson Soucy's third goal of season at 13:03 of the first period. Soucy, streaking in from the left point, took a tape-to-tape pass from fellow junior defenseman Willie Raskob and redirected a shot past St. Cloud State goaltender Charlie Lindgren.  Senior center Tony Cameranesi also picked up an assist on that goal to extend his personal scoring streak to eight games. A pair of second-period scores from Mikey Eyssimont put the Huskies ahead for good and Patrick Russell added some insurance 5:09 into the third period. 

The Bulldogs (18-15-5) outshot the Huskies 34-18 on the night, including 11-5 in the opening period of play. St. Cloud State, which sports the nation's second most effective power play, was held scoreless on all three of its man advantage opportunities as was UMD.

Both Raskob, who had three assists on the weekend and junior center Dominic Toninto (two goals on Friday) were chosen to the six-member Frozen Faceoff All-Tournament Team. They were joined by Eyssimont, Lindgren, St. Cloud State's Ethan Prow and North Dakota's Nick Schmaltz.