2010 East Regional The 2010 East Regional of the NCAA Tournament took place March 26 and 27 , 2010 , at the Times Union Center in Albany , New York . This was the eighth time the Times Union Center ( under various names ) has hosted the East regional . The regional was hosted by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and ECAC Hockey . The participants were : Cornell was the ECAC Hockey champion , and RIT was the Atlantic Hockey champion . Denver and New Hampshire advanced to the NCAA Tournament by way of at - large bids . Denver , the WCHA regular - season champion , is the # 2 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament . New Hampshire was the Hockey East regular - season champion , and RIT was the Atlantic Hockey regular - season champion . In the final USCHO poll , Denver was ranked # 2 , Cornell # 6 , New Hampshire # 12 , and RIT # 20 . This was RIT ' s first appearance in the Division I tournament , in the program ' s fifth Division I season , although they were frequent national tournament participants at the Division II and III levels . First Round . The first round games were played on March 26 . RIT vs . Denver . Denver came in to the regional having lost their last two games , first in the WCHA semifinals and then in the third - place game , both in St . Paul , Minnesota the previous weekend . After cruising to the WCHA regular - season championship , they clearly had faltered despite having a Hobey Baker Award finalist , Marc Cheverie , in net . Denver ' s players , fans , and coaches talked a good game about respecting RIT and , in theory at least , knew not to take the AHA champions lightly . After all , AHA teams had won two of the last four first - round tournament games ( Holy Cross over Minnesota in 2006 and Air Force over Michigan in 2009 ) . RIT had taken a very different route to the regional . RIT had gotten off to a very slow start in October , dropping a well - attended homecoming game to Colgate and losing to Clarkson and St . Lawrence the following weekend , despite arguably outplaying those ECAC Hockey teams . With a pair of losses at Air Force ( the first time RIT had ever been swept in Atlantic Hockey play ) , RIT was 0 - 5 and fans were preparing for a down year . But RIT found their groove and their chemistry , winning two each against Connecticut and Army , and the season was clearly back on track after a pair of dominating road wins against a very good Mercyhurst team . RIT lost a home game to Niagara and a pair on the road to Minnesota State , dropping their out - of - conference record to 0 - 6 , but they continued to roll through the AHA , dropping only three conference games the rest of the season . They ended the AHA season at the top of the standings by 10 full points ( 22 - 5 - 1 ) and were named the # 1 seed for the tournament for the first time . After a scare in the first tournament game against Connecticut ended in a 3 - 2 overtime win , RIT dominated Connecticut , Canisius and Sacred Heart in turn to win their first AHA title and NCAA berth . The Tigers , on the nation ' s longest winning streak at 10 games , were rewarded with their first national ranking , # 20 in the final USCHO poll . Albany is only 3 . 5 hours from Rochester along the New York State Thruway , so a large contingent of RIT fans , including the RIT Pep Band , were in attendance . Denver , on the other hand , is a small private school two timezones away and did not have a large cheering section . Nonetheless , Denver was the # 2 team in the country and heavily favored to defeat # 20 RIT . RIT obviously came ready to play , a stark contrast to their two previous games in which they ' d taken a few minutes to get settled in . Neither team generated many chances in the opening minutes , and the shot clock was only 1 - 0 in RIT ' s favor at the five - minute mark . RIT ' s second shot came at 5 : 02 when RIT ' s freshman D - man Chris Tanev intercepted a clearing attempt at the Denver blue line and skated in toward the net . A Denver player slid to the ice to try to block the shot but didn ' t slide far enough , and Tanev ripped the puck past the Denver player ' s skates . The puck evaded a screened Cheverie high stick - side for first blood . The goal was exactly what RIT needed , or so it was felt at the time — it redistributed the pressure away from RIT ' s smaller skaters and directly onto Denver , who now faced more even urgency to avoid what would be seen as an embarrassing upset . But RIT wasn ' t about to go away ; they kept pressure on and kept up the stout defensive work ( from both forwards and blueliners ) to keep the lead throughout the first period . RIT goalie Jared DeMichiel made the saves he needed to make and Denver headed to the locker room frustrated but still confident . The second period was dominated more strongly by Denver , but when the period - ending buzzer sounded , RIT was still ahead 1 - 0 . DeMichiel continued to make good saves , and his defense continued to block shots , take away passing lanes , and keep Denver from being able to set anything up . Reaching the second intermission with a lead was key for RIT , who hadn ' t lost a game they led after two since November 2007 . Still , there was a general sense that there was no way one goal would be enough to beat a team like Denver . In the third , Denver turned it up yet another notch , but also perhaps started pressing a little too hard to try to get the equalizer . Denver ' s Jesse Martin took a questionable elbowing penalty at 11 : 35 of the third , Denver ' s second penalty of the night . Martin leveled Taylor McReynolds in the open ice and clearly led with his shoulder , raising his arm a bit as they collided , but it ' s not at all clear whether his elbow actually made contact . Arguably , even if it wasn ' t elbowing , it would have been interference , as McReynolds no longer had the puck . The penalty took effect nonetheless , and a minute into the power play , RIT was on the board again . Dan Ringwald passed from the blue line to Andrew Favot , who worked it up the slot and then fed a perfect pass to Cameron Burt , who was waiting on Cheverie ' s glove side to bang the puck home . 33 seconds later , RIT ' s Mike Janda was sent to the sin bin for holding the stick , possibly a make - up call by the refs , and Denver took advantage . They kept the puck in RIT ' s zone for long stretches of time , tiring RIT ' s penalty killers . Finally , DeMichiel gave up a weak rebound that RIT ' s gassed defenders couldn ' t reach before Denver ' s Joe Colborne fired it into the net at 14 : 34 . But that was as close as Denver would get . They poured on the pressure in the last five minutes , pulling Cheverie with 1 : 45 left , but couldn ' t find the back of the net . RIT used tall freshman center Adam Hartley on several defensive - zone faceoffs , and those he didn ' t win he at least kept Denver from winning cleanly , disrupting any set plays they might have attempted . DeMichiel and his defense stood their ground , and when the final buzzer sounded , RIT found themselves 1 - 0 all time in NCAA tournament games . Denver exits the tournament in the first round for the third consecutive year ; they haven ' t won a national tournament game since their championship in 2005 . RIT wins its first - ever Division I national tournament game to improve on several streaks . First , this was their 11th consecutive win , tying the school Division I record set in the 2008 - 09 season . Second , it continues a streak of consecutive years with a victory over a ranked team ( every year since moving up to Division I in 2005 - 06 : first St . Lawrence , then Cornell and Minnesota , and in 08 - 09 Air Force , ranked # 10 at the time ) . RIT had not yet played a ranked team this season , giving them no opportunity to win one , but # 2 Denver was waiting for them when they made the tournament , and the streak continues . In addition , RIT ' s streak of 14 consecutive games with a power - play goal and a streak of holding onto second - intermission leads that goes back to November 2007 are both extended . New Hampshire vs . Cornell . Cornell goalie Ben Scrivens came into the regional on the strength of three consecutive shutouts , leading the Big Red to the ECAC Hockey championship . A Hobey Baker Award finalist , the outcome of the game would rest on how well Scrivens played . UNH had won the Hockey East regular - season championship , but flamed out in the conference tournament , losing a pair of 1 - 0 decisions to Vermont . A team who had not allowed a goal in three games versus a team that had not scored in two games — on paper , a clear mismatch . And even though Durham , New Hampshire is only a few hours from Albany , Cornell and its wild fans are even closer in Ithaca , New York . But the Wildcats were undaunted . At 16 : 47 , trailing by one , New Hampshire ' s Hobey candidate Bobby Butler ripped a hard shot past Scrivens and started celebrating . But the puck lay on the ice " beside " the goal , not inside it , and the referee made no signal that Butler had scored . Play continued for 44 seconds until the next stoppage in play ; the referees spent five minutes reviewing the goal , which , on replay , clearly had gone into the net and through the mesh , popping out the other side to Scrivens ' right . Much the same thing had happened on Vermont ' s overtime goal against Air Force in last year ' s East Regional final , except in that case , play had gone on for five minutes before the goal was reviewed . The clock was rewound to 16 : 47 , the time of Butler ' s goal , and just 26 seconds later ( a section of time that had " already been played " before the goal review ! ) , Mike Sislo sent another goal past Scrivens . Scrivens ' confidence was shaken and it seemed as if Cornell had no idea what to do with their goalie not stopping every shot . For UNH , breaking the " seal " on Scrivens just opened the floodgates , as they scored three more times in the third period . Cornell ' s second goal at 17 : 49 was too little , too late , and the Wildcats got an empty netter to win the game 6 - 2 . Cornell , considered a likely candidate to upset Denver in the regional final , instead goes home early , matching the disappointment from the day before when their basketball team lost in the Sweet 16 . New Hampshire moves on to face a plucky RIT squad in the regional final with a trip to the Frozen Four at stake . Final . RIT and New Hampshire played a tight game for the first half . RIT ' s Chris Haltigin opened the scoring at 14 : 10 of the first , but New Hampshire answered with 59 seconds to play on a goal by Phil DeSimone . Play was fairly even through the halfway point of the second period , but then RIT opened up . Tigers Tyler Brenner , Brent Alexin , and Stevan Matic all scored within a span of 1 : 34 to turn a close 1 - 1 game into a 4 - 1 blowout . UNH took a timeout to settle the troops but by that point , the damage was done . RIT ended up outshooting New Hampshire 18 - 6 in the second period . In the third , New Hampshire righted the ship , but Brenner scored again at the 10 : 01 mark to seal the victory for the Tigers . New Hampshire ' s Blake Kessel would get another puck past DeMichiel at 17 : 31 , but Tyler Mazzei scored an empty - netter to restore the four - goal lead and send the Tigers to the Frozen Four . ( Mazzei had been trying to pass to Brenner to get the sophomore a hat trick , but the puck deflected off of a Wildcat skate into the open net , giving Mazzei credit for the goal . ) The sequence of events in the game was eerily similar to the Cornell - New Hampshire game the day before , and the score was exactly the same , except that UNH was on the losing side this time . RIT ascends to the D - I Frozen Four for the first time , in just their " fifth year " as a Division I program . Their last Frozen Four was the D - III tournament in 2001 , in which their then - unbeaten season came to an end in the national championship game , on home ice at Ritter Arena against SUNY Plattsburgh . RIT is the first Atlantic Hockey team to make the Frozen Four . They are also only the fourth # 4 seed to do so , after Notre Dame in 2008 and Bemidji and Miami in 2009 . RIT ' s national - best winning streak is extended to 12 games , as is their streak of not giving up second - intermission leads . Their streak of consecutive games with a power - play goal , however , comes to an end , as all eight goals in this game were scored at even strength . This game represented RIT ' s 100th win as a Division I program , giving them a 100 – 71 – 13 record over five years . All - Regional Team . The All - Regional Team greatly resembled the Atlantic Hockey All - Tournament Team , with five RIT players on each , four of them the same . Jared DeMichiel was named the East Regional Most Outstanding Player .