Notre Dame won't make it back to the Frozen Four this season.
The Irish, the national runners-up a year ago, lost 4-0 to Massachusetts on Saturday night in the championship game of the Northeast Region at SNHU Arena in Manchester, N.H., before a crowd announced at 5,679.
Jake Gaudet's power-play goal gave the Minutemen (30-9) a 1-0 lead just under eight minutes into the second period. John Leonard made it 2-0 about 2½ minutes later. And four minutes later, Cale Makar scored a third goal.
Oliver Chau added an empty-netter with 2½ minutes left to play.
Filip Lindberg needed to make only 13 saves for UMass. One of his biggest came just over five minutes into the game when he stopped Jack Jenkins of the Irish on a two-on-one rush. Cale Morris had 30 saves for the Irish (23-14-3).
The seniors on Notre Dame became the first class to earn four straight NCAA tournament berths, in addition to two NCAA Frozen Four appearances and three Big Ten Conference championships.
The Irish played in a region final for the third consecutive season.
