According to at least one Bulldog, all the University of Minnesota Duluth needed Saturday night in its NCAA Frozen Four championship bout with the University of Denver was time. Just a little more time.

"I really thought if we had two or three more minutes in that third period, things would have wound up differently," said UMD junior right winger Karson Kuhlman following to the Bulldogs' 3-2 loss to their National Collegiate Hockey Conference rival before a crowd of 19,783 at Chicago's United Center. "We were dominating play and taking it to them, but we just couldn't get that equalizer at the end."

The Bulldogs outshot Denver 17-3 in the final 20 minutes of regulation, yet managed just one goal after entering the second intermission 3-1. Denver's Tanner Jaillet, who yesterday received the 2016-17 Mike Richter Award as college hockey's most outstanding goalie, kept the Bulldogs in check, particularly in the final two minutes when they pulled their own netminder Hunter Miska for an extra attacker and applied relentless pressure.

"The talk in the locker room heading into the third was to go out there, have our best period and give ourselves a chance," said UMD senior center Dominic Toninato.  "We did that and I couldn't be prouder of our guys. They battled and gave it their all right to the end --  just as they've done all season.

Following a scoreless first period, Denver struck for a pair of goals from Jarid Lukosevicius 16 seconds apart early in the second before All-American left winger Alex Iafallo got UMD on the board a short while later by redirecting a power play feed from rookie right winger Joey Anderson. The goal was the 21st of the year for Iafallo, who also closed out his career riding a 15-game scoring streak. Lukosevicius completed his hat trick at 12:23 of the second period to put the Pioneers (33-7-4 overall) back up by two.

UMD (28-7-7) cut the Denver lead to 3-2 with 5:21 to go in the third period when freshman left winger Riley Tufte banged home a rebound after junior center Avery Peterson rang a shot off the cross bar and bounced out to the low slot where Tufte was stationed.

The loss was just the Bulldogs' second in their last 21 games (16-2-3) and put the clamps on their eight-game winning streak. UMD also came into the night having won seven straight postseason contests, a program record.

All seven members of UMD's 2016-17 senior class were in the lineup Saturday, including Iafallo, Toninato, left winger Kyle Osterberg, and defensmen Brenden Kotyk Dan Molenaar, Willie Raskob, and Carson Soucy. That group helped lead the Bulldogs to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff and NCAA West Regional titles this season.

"It's a special group of guys," said Kuhlman. "Obviously it starts with Dominic, our captain, our leader and trickles down.  It's been great for our younger guys to see how to play, how to manage games. I think a lot can be learned from that senior class. Obviously the three years I was with them was special, and I love those guys to death."