Krog Lifts New Hampshire to Final

Ron Mason has seen a lot of college hockey in 33 years as a head coach, and he figured goals would be hard to come by Thursday night.

His team, Michigan State, has the nation’s best defense, giving up only 1.44 goals a game, the fewest in almost 70 years. But Mason says New Hampshire’s 2.18 team goals-against average is “astounding; no, that’s not strong enough, it’s unheard of what they’ve done against the kind of competition they’ve faced.”

So much for a defensive battle royale.

Jason Krog, a leading candidate for the Hobey Baker Award that will be announced today, scored twice and had an assist, and linemate Mike Souza had two goals and two assists as New Hampshire defeated Michigan State, 5-3, in front of an announced crowd of 12,719 at the Arrowhead Pond.

New Hampshire (31-6-3) will play Maine (30-6-4) in Saturday’s NCAA championship game at 4:30 p.m.

Three times the Spartans (29-6-7) rebounded from one-goal deficits to tie the score, but they ran out of answers midway through the third period. Krog swept along the boards down the left wing and slipped a perfect pass to Jason Shipulski in the slot, who tipped it into the net for a 4-3 Wildcat lead at 10:52 of the third.

Less than four minutes later with New Hampshire on a power play, Krog pounced on a rebound and fired the puck past Spartan goalie Joe Blackburn to increase his nation-leading goal total to 34.

“They kept coming back, but you don’t expect to run anyone out of the game at this point,” New Hampshire Coach Dick Umile said.

Souza twice capitalized on Michigan State defensive lapses in the second period. He gave the Wildcats a 2-1 lead at 2:44 when Michigan State failed to clear and he fired the puck between Blackburn’s legs.

The Spartans’ Sean Patchell, charging through the slot, reached out and got his stick on Mark Loeding’s long slap shot, deflecting it off the leg of New Hampshire goalie Ty Conklin and into the net to tie the score, 2-2, at 6:49.

Souza put New Hampshire ahead with less than two minutes left in the period after defenseman Jeff Kozakowski could not clear the puck in front of the Michigan State goal. Blackburn made a save on Souza’s first shot, but the junior forward put the rebound in the net.

Michigan State freshman Adam Hall scored at 3:44 of the third period to tie the score, but it was the Spartans’ last hurrah.

“You can’t keep playing catch-up for that long and we couldn’t get that go-ahead goal when we had some good opportunities in the second period,” Mason said. “Our defense made some pretty poor decisions with the puck and it seemed like every time we did, they capitalized.”

New Hampshire, which lost to Michigan, 4-0, in the Frozen Four semifinals last year, will be making its first appearance in the final.

“The celebration ended on the ice,” Souza said. “The guys were all pretty calm in the locker room. We’re focused and hopefully we’ll be ready to go at it Saturday.”

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NCAA Championship

* Who: Maine (30-6-4) vs. New Hampshire (31-6-3).

* Where: Arrowhead Pond.

* When: Saturday, 4:30 p.m.

* TV: ESPN.