By Warren Kozireski —
Some dreams take a little longer than others to come true.
After his Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs lost both the National Collegiate Hockey Conference final and the NCAA Northeast Regional last season, Alex Iafallo and his teammates went on a mission.
“We lost twice in the regional finals the last two years, so over the summer I worked really hard and I felt like I wanted this moment right here (playing in the national title game).”
Iafallo had solid seasons offensively over his first three with the Bulldogs scoring 22, 25 and 23 points from his freshman to junior years, but this season he exploded offensively with 20 goals and 30 assists to lead the team in both categories.
He ended his collegiate career on a 15-game scoring streak—the longest for the Bulldogs since Hobey Baker winner Jack Connolly’s 22-game tear in 2011-12.
He assisted on the overtime winners in both the semi-final and final of the NCAA West Regional in wins over Ohio State and Boston University before netting the game-winner with just 27 seconds remaining in regulation in the national semi-final to launch them into the final against top-ranked Denver.
He also scored one of the Duluth goals in the 3-2 championship loss to Denver and was named to the Frozen Four All-Tournament Team.
It’s the latest game winner in regulation of a national semifinal since Justin Holl of Minnesota scored the decisive tally with 0:00.6 left against North Dakota in 2014 in Philadelphia.
“He’s had a great year, obviously, I think when you look at numbers,” Minnesota-Duluth head coach Scott Sandelin said. “But he’s been a real good player for us. He’s had some really good parts of his first three years he’s been a really good player, but maybe a little inconsistent by his standards, by our standards. And I think last year, when he didn’t have the kind of year he wanted personally, and also that we didn’t win that regional game.
“But he went back and was determined to have a good summer, a better summer. Worked hard to continue to get stronger.
“I think he worked on shooting the puck. He’s obviously got tremendous quickness. He’s really got great edges. And he does have pretty good hands. But he’s just been really good for us at a high level all year. And it was probably fitting, our best player up there scored.”
(Look for the rest of this feature in the May issue of NY Hockey OnLine Magazine)
