"It's a tough loss," said head coach Mel Pearson. "There's a fine line between winning and losing, and we didn't get the bounce tonight."

Both teams had scoring chances in an evenly-played game. The shots were 33-31 in favor of the Huskies, and each team killed three penalties.

Daniel Holmberg hit the cross bar in the second period, and Tech had at least one other sail just over the net.

Blake Pietila missed on a breakaway in the third period. Copley kept the Huskies in the game with 10 big saves in the third, and the Black and Gold had a timely power play with 2:38 left in regulation.

Hafner stopped several point-blank chances to send the game to overtime.

After a full intermission, the teams returned to the ice. Just two minutes into the first 20-minute extra session, Copley paddled away a shot, but it went straight to Kovacs who shot it back on net. He didn't get much on the shot, but it snuck through Copley's right pad and just across the goal line.

"Pheonix played great," said Pearson. "He made it look easy for most of the night, and he gave us a chance to win.

"We created chances, but they're just not going in right now. The goaltending and defense were really good in this game."

Forward Alex Petan, who had the game-tying goal in last night's semifinal, and defenseman Riley Sweeney were named to the GLI All-Tournament Team.

Michigan Tech will be back in action next weekend with a WCHA series at Lake Superior State. Games are Friday and Saturday (Jan. 3-4) at 7:37 and 7:07 p.m., respectively.