Ben Smith registered a goal and two assists for the Eagles, who captured their first title since 2001. Boston College was making its third straight appearance in the championship game. Last year, the Eagles lost to Michigan State, 3-1. In 2006, Boston College fell to Wisconsin, 2-1.

John Muse made 20 saves to earn the victory.

Named after a legendary Princeton hockey player who died in World War I, the award recognizes strength of character in players both on and off the ice.

Porter, a senior, is only the second player in the Wolverines' history to win the award, joining Brendan Morrison, who received the honor in 1997.

In the extra session, Ridderwall collected a rebound in the slot, transfered the puck from the backhand to the forehand and snapped a shot that beat Bryan Hogan on the stick side.

Ridderwall finished with two goals, while Ryan Thang registered a goal and an assist for the Fighting Irish, who will battle Boston College in Saturday's title game. The Eagles defeated North Dakota 6-1 earlier on Thursday. Notre Dame is the only number four seed to reach the championship game.

Ben Smith and Dan Bertram each posted a goal and an assist for the Eagles (24-11-8), who will play the winner of the Notre Dame/Michigan game later on Thursday. Boston College will be making its third straight appearance in the title game. Last year, the Eagles lost to Michigan State, 3-1. In 2006, Boston College fell to Wisconsin, 2-1.

Brian Gibbons collected two helpers, while John Muse stopped 29-of-30 shots to pick up the win.

The winner will be announced next Friday in Denver, site of this year's Frozen Four.

Gerbe has posted 30 goals and 30 assists in 41 games and enters next week's Frozen Four ranked second in the nation in points and third nationally in goals. The Eagles play North Dakota next Thursday in the national semifinals.

The Fighting Sioux (28-10-4) won the Midwest Regional final at the Kohl Center to set up a meeting against Boston College on Thursday, April 10 at the Pepsi Center in Denver. The other semifinal matchup features Michigan against Notre Dame. The winners will play in the championship game on April 12th.

Boston College bested Miami (Ohio), 4-3, in overtime to win the East Regional final. Joe Whitney scored the game-winner 12:12 into the extra frame for the Eagles (23-11-8), who advanced to the Frozen Four for the third consecutive year and 21st time in the program's history.

Michigan (31-5-4) will begin its trek to the Frozen Four against Niagara (22-10-4) in Albany, New York. No. 2 St. Cloud State (19-15-5) will square off against Clarkson (21-12-4) in the other East regional matchup.

Miami-Ohio (32-7-1), the top seed in the Northeast regional, will take on Air Force (21-11-6) in Worcester, Massachusetts while second seed Boston College (21-11-8) will face Minnesota (19-16-0) in the other regional semifinal.

The Eagles were controlling the extra period and outshot Harvard 7-0 before Petrecki got to a rebound during a scramble in front of the net and poked it past Kyle Richter.

It was BC's first Beanpot victory since 2004 and the 14th overall in the annual contest for the region's college hockey bragging rights.

"This is an excellent package for UND Athletics and the hockey program," said Tom Buning, North Dakota athletic director. "We've been working on this package for a while, the administration put on the finishing touches."

Hakstol, who has taken North Dakota to three straight Frozen Fours in his three years as head coach, will earn a base salary of $210,000 per year, with added incentives of up to 25 percent of that number.

The Boston Herald reports the 39-year-old Mutch, who was named the Hockey East and New England coach of the year in 2007 as he led the Eagles to their first NCAA Frozen Four appearance this season, received a sexually graphic text message on his cell phone from BC hockey star Kelli Stack.

According to the newspaper, the school has yet to find an actual sexual relationship between Mutch and the 19-year-old Stack.

Tim Kennedy had a goal and an assist for the Spartans, who ended the season with five straight wins. Chris Mueller also tallied and Jeff Lerg stopped 28 shots.

"BC was coming to the net hard all game, but I knew if I made key saves, we'd have a chance, because we could not play their game," said Lerg. "In the end, we outplayed them."

Named after a legendary Princeton hockey player who died in World War I, the award recognizes strength of character in players both on and off the ice.

Duncan, a sophomore, is the first Fighting Sioux player to earn the honor since former NHL player Tony Hrkac in 1987. He is the sixth consecutive Hobey winner to come out of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.

Boston College will next due battle with Michigan State, which advanced to its first championship game since 1987 with a 4-2 win over Maine earlier on Thursday.

Dan Bertram also scored twice for the Eagles (29-11-1), while netminder Cory Schneider finished with 26 saves.

Nick Sucharski, Chris Snavely and Kim McKenzie all lit the lamp for the Spartans (25-14-3), who will play the winner of the North Dakota/Boston College game later on Thursday.

"The biggest thing today was the penalty kill," said Mueller. "We knew Maine had the top power play, but we played with patience and stayed out of the box, which was the key to winning the game."

Nick Sucharski, Chris Snavely and Kim McKenzie all lit the lamp for the Spartans (25-14-3), who will play the winner of the North Dakota/Boston College game later on Thursday.

Jeff Lerg finished with 29 saves for Michigan State, which last won a national title in 1986.

The award is presented annually to the nation's best men's hockey player, and is traditionally given out the day before the national championship game, which takes place on Saturday, April 7 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

Goaltender David Brown of Notre Dame and Eric Ehn of Air Force are the remaining two players, selected from the original list of 10 announced earlier this month.

Notre Dame, Clarkson and New Hampshire also garnered top seeds for the 16-team tournament, which will begin next weekend.

Wisconsin, last year's tournament champion, was not among the teams selected to participate.

The Terriers won the faceoff in the right circle and McGuirk quickly got to the disc before snapping a quick shot. The puck deflected off the stick of a Boston College player's stick and beat goaltender Cory Schneider high.

It was McGuirk's first goal in 26 games this season.

Nathan Gerbe scored the game-winning goal while short-handed and Brian Boyle added an empty-net tally to pace Boston College to a 3-1 victory over Harvard.

Earlier Monday, Pete MacArthur and Kenny Roche scored 48 seconds apart midway through the second period to lead Boston University to a 4-0 victory over Northeastern. Dan McGoff added a pair of third-period goals for the Terriers.

The 47-year-old Lucia is currently in his seventh season at the helm of the powerful Golden Gopher program, which has reached the Frozen Four in three of the last four seasons, including NCAA titles in 2002 and 2003.

Originally, Lucia was under contract for the next three seasons, but will now lead Minnesota through the 2011-2012 campaign.

Canisius, Fairfield and Iona -- the three full-time members -- were part of the original eight-team field when the league was formed in 1998-99, but only Canisius maintained its program after the 2002-03 season.

The league's eight associate members, American International, Connecticut, Holy Cross, Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart, Bentley, Mercyhurst and Army pulled out of the hockey league.

Poulin is stepping down after 10 seasons as the hockey coach to take on a position in athletic administration. His new title is special assistant to the senior associate athletic director.

Poulin will work in the area of athletic development, assisting senior associate athletics director Bill Scholl with a variety of projects. In particular, he will be involved as the university works to identify prospective donors with the goal of renovating Notre Dame's existing home hockey facility in the Joyce Center Fieldhouse.

Freshman Thomas Vanek, who powers the Golden Gophers' top line, added a goal and an assist for Minnesota (30-8-9), which became the first repeat champions since Boston University won consecutive titles in 1971 and 1972.

Vanek's posted the go-ahead goal early in the third period to snap a 1-1 tie. The Austrian also tallied the game-winner in Thursday night's 3-2 semifinal victory against Michigan in overtime.

Sejna, a native of Slovakia, was the nations leader in points and goals. In 42 contests this season, Sejna tallied 36 goals and 46 assists for 82 points. He had 27 multi-point contests and recorded at least one point in all but one game.

Sejna made his NHL debut for the St. Louis Blues in the regular season finale against Colorado on Sunday. He scored a goal in the 5-2 loss.

It marked Denver's sixth national championship in the sport and first since 1969. The six titles rank third all-time in NCAA history behind Michigan's nine and North Dakota's seven.

The Pioneers (27-12-5) reached the final by knocking off Minnesota Duluth 5-3 in a semifinal encounter. Lukas Dora, Denver's third leading scorer on the season, who scored the game-winner against UM-Duluth, did not play in the contest after being suspended for violation team rules Friday night.