MARLBOROUGH, Mass. – The Beavers simply refused to lose and now find themselves in the game they've been chasing for the past 12 months: The ACHA National Championship game.

For the second straight night, the No. 1-ranked Minot State men's hockey team needed overtime but the Beavers managed to find a way to win, beating No. 5-ranked Liberty 3-2 in the national semifinals Monday night.

The win sends Minot State into Tuesday's title game at 7 p.m. (CT) against No. 3-ranked Adrian (Mich.), which beat Ohio 8-5 in Monday night's other semifinal.

"Wow! What an effort," Minot State head coach Wyatt Waselenchuk said. "Top to bottom, just a gutsy performance. Once again, we stuck true to our motto: Attention to detail. Hard work. Positivity.

"Another unbelievable performance by the opposing goalie, but we found a way in the end.

"Survive and advance!"

The Beavers advance to play for the program's third National Championship which has been the team's focus for the past 12 months after an early exit from last year's national tournament, now a distant memory for a resilient Minot State team that erased a 2-0 deficit in the third period against the Flames.

Liberty scored two goals just 5 minutes, 37 seconds apart late in the first period, then rode goalie Hunter Virtostek, who finished the night with 61 saves.

Fourteen of those saves came in the first period, and 20 more in the second as Liberty clung to the 2-0 lead until Minot State's senior captain, Davis Sheldon, finally changed the game's momentum, scoring a power-play goal off assists from Reid Arnold and Joey Moffatt 1:11 into the third.

Having found a way to get the puck past Virtostek, the Beavers (34-3-0 overall) kept working hard looking for the equalizer and finally found it late in regulation as Josh Pederson tied the score at 2-2 with just 3:51 left in the third period off a Christian Kadolph assist.

That sent the game into overtime, the Beavers second straight venture into the extra session as they needed overtime to dispatch Indiana Tech, 4-3, in Sunday night's quarterfinals.

Once again, Minot State prevailed in the extra period, outshooting Liberty 9-5 and finally putting the game-winner behind Virtostek 15:17 into overtime as Moffatt scored to send the Beavers into Tuesday's National Championship contest.

Sheldon and Kadolph assisted on the game-winner for Minot State, which got 29 saves from Jake Anthony in goal.

Now Minot State takes on the Adrian Bulldogs (37-2-2), a team the Beavers are 6-3 against head-to-head, but a team whose last win over the Beavers came 6-1 in the 2021 National Championship game.