Click here to see a photo gallery from Sunday's game.

Both coaches lamented that there had to be a loser.

But after 182 minutes and 8 seconds of hockey over the weekend, Minnesota State ended up falling in the first round of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs Sunday at the Alltel Center

In the third overtime game in as many days and the second double-overtime game of the series, Tony Lucia scored the goal that gave Minnesota a 3-2 win and a berth into the Final Five and left the Mavericks hoping the NCAA tournament committee will remember them in a week.

Lucia stuffed in the rebound of Evan Kaufmann’s shot with 3:01 remaining in the second overtime.

“It’s a shame that one of those teams had to lose,” Mavericks coach Troy Jutting said. “From Friday night at 7 o’clock through tonight’s game, I don’t know if I’ve seen a better weekend of college hockey.”

The Mavericks won Friday’s game 1-0 in double overtime, and Minnesota came back for a 2-1 overtime win Saturday.

“This was the most hard-fought weekend I’ve ever been a part of,” Gophers coach Don Lucia said.

Now the Mavericks’ fate is in the hands of the Pairwise rankings and the NCAA tournament committee. Minnesota State (19-16-4) fell to a tie for 13th in the rankings, which mimic the selection process.

“Hopefully, we’ll get to play again,” Jutting said. “This team has shown a great deal of improvement all season. They played their hearts out this weekend. If there’s any justice, we’ll play again.

The two goaltenders – Minnesota’s Alex Kangas and Minnesota State’s Mike Zacharias — continued their outstanding play Sunday. Kangas stopped 44 shots, while Zacharias stopped 47. Both goalies made 22 saves in the overtimes.

“Both goalies were unbelievable,” Don Lucia said. “There were times in overtime when I thought (MSU) is going to win it here, and there were times when I thought we were going to win it.”

A little more than a minute before the game-winning goal, Kangas made a tough save on Jon Kalinski, sticking out his leg pad at the last moment to knock away a shot from the slot.

“He made an unbelievable save,” Kalinski said. “I don’t know how he came across to make it.”