Kalinski lamented not being able to reward Zacharias for his play.

“Zachy was unbelievable,” Kalinski said. “He kept us in it every night. We owe him a lot, and it’s too bad we didn’t get him the win this weekend.”

The Mavericks led 1-0 on Mick Berge’s power-play goal at 8:38. But the Gophers came back on goals by Jay Barriball and Patrick White in the first and second periods, respectively.

Six minutes into the second period, Mavericks forward Jason Wiley was given a five-minute major penalty and a game disqualification for and elbow to the head of Minnesota’s Tom Pohl. Pohl went into the boards at the Gophers bench and had to be taken out of the rink on a backboard and stretcher with an apparent head injury.

According to team officials, Pohl was taken to Immanuel-St. Joseph’s Hospital with a head injury and then airlifted to Rochester for precautionary reasons.

At 3:20 of the third period Kael Mouillierat tied the game for the Mavericks, tapping a Trevor Bruess pass through Kangas’ pads.

Both teams had a number of quality scoring chances in overtime. Minnesota State’s Andrew Sackrison hit one off the crossbar.

Only one other time in WCHA history have all three games of a playoff series gone to overtime. The other time was in 1992 between Colorado College and Minnesota Duluth, with Colorado College winning in the series’ second triple-overtime game.