It's not the Final Four, it's cooler. In fact, it's so cool it's frozen.

It was an unbelievable tournament that was perhaps the best college hockey has seen in years. For fans of University of Minnesota-Duluth hockey, unbelievable doesn't begin to describe how this tournament was.

The Bulldogs were making their first Frozen Four appearance since 2004, where they lost 5-3 to a Denver team that would go on to win the tournament the next game. This appearance marked just the seventh overall appearance by the Bulldogs in the tournemt itself.

Three of those seven appearances have come in the 2000s ('04, '09 and '11 respectively).

They had danced but never been the belle of the ball, that is until this year rolled around. With a team filled with a real "Our boys" feel for Minnesota hockey fans (17 of the 26 players on the active roster are from Minnesota), the Bulldogs finished with a 15-8-5 record which was good enough to get them the fourth seed in the WCHA Final Five qualifying tournament.

They avenged their 2004 loss to Denver by beating them in the championship game, 3-2.

The Bulldogs then rolled through the Regionals of the NCAA tournament, earning a shutout win against Union and punched their ticket to the Frozen Four with a 5-3 victory in the Regional Final over Yale.

Elsa/Getty Images

The Frozen Four saw the Bulldogs matchup against the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, a team much like UMD before, that was a Cinderella team.

That Cinderella team gave the Bulldogs a scare, getting an early edge but UMD fought back. they took a 4-2 lead and fended off the Irish after Notre Dame scored a shorthanded goal. The last 18 minutes of the National Semis were some of the most intense minutes of hockey in the tournament.

The Bulldogs matched up against the Michgan Wolverines in the Finals, a team that hadn't been to the Finals since 1998. The Wolverines edged out North Dakota, a feat that UMD and Michigan can bind over. It would be an understatement to say North Dakota is hated in many college hockey circles.

The Finals gave great tribute to how exciting the entire tournament had been. Three periods of hockey wasn't enough to decide a champion and as the game went into overtime, tensions ran high.

Both teams found themselves in an unbelievable situation. UMD was fried as far as the critics were concerned when they faced off against Yale in the Eastern Regionals. Michigan had to escape with a first round overtime win to stay alive and they didn't stop rolling.

Well, that is they WERE rolling until UMD's Kyle Schmidt had something to say about it.

Elsa/Getty Images

Schmidt scored the game winning goal with 3:22 left in overtime by cycling around to line mate Tom Oleksuk who set up Schmidt with a backhand pass from behind the net. Schmidt fired the puck and before Michigan goalie Shawn Hunwick could move, the puck was in the back of the net.

The win gave the Bulldogs their first ever National Championship.

"It's definitely icing on the cake, I couldn't have drawn up a better way to end my college career," Schmidt said. "In August we set our goals that we wanted to win a regular-season title, a [WCHA] playoff title and then a national championship. When we didn't get the first two, we said this one trumps the other two and we were able to get it done and I couldn't be happier."

The win marks the first time since 1993 that a repeat team didn't win the title. It was the first time since 1984 that UMD played in a championship game. Despite producing four Hobey Baker Award winners and having NHL Hall of Famer Brett Hull on the roster, UMD suffered an 11-year drought before retiring to the tournament and it took until Saturday for them to return to the title bout.

After the game on the ice and in the locker room, Kyle Schmidt was reduced to tears as he saw a lifelong dream for himself and his teammates realized.

"It's not everyday that you are in a championship game, especially to win it. It's something special and hopefully it won't be forgotten anytime soon," Schmidt said.

Elsa/Getty Images

Schmidt is a deserving face of the tournament as he embodies everything college hockey is about. Schmidt grew up in a small town suburb of Duluth, Hermantown, and grew up as familiar with skates as he was with walking.

The win was equally as satisfying for the Bulldogs as the Frozen Four was held in St. Paul at the Xcel Energy Center in front of a crowd of 19,222. The Xcel Energy Center, home of the NHL's Minnesota Wild, is a mere two hour drive from Duluth. Minnesota bleeds hockey and to have the Bulldogs win in Minnesota is pure fandom gold.

But no one is as satisfied and deserving of the win than the boys from Duluth and their die-hard loyal fans from the Northland.