Box Score MANKATO, Minn. - The MacNaughton Cup is returning to Denver for the first time since 2005. No. 1 Denver secured its 12^th WCHA regular-season title with a dramatic 4-3 overtime win at Minnesota State tonight at Verizon Wireless Center.

Rhett Rakhshani (Huntington Beach, Calif.) buried a Tyler Ruegsegger (Lakewood) rebound with 13 seconds left in overtime to give Denver its first WCHA regular-season title in five years.

"I am very, very proud of our team for winning this game and the WCHA championship," DU head coach George Gwozdecky said. "We never gave up, especially when we had a potential goal disallowed and had to kill a lot of penalties in the third period. Marc made it possible with a big save prior to Rhett's game-winner and we were very fortunate to wrap up the title here tonight. You wouldn't have known it was the top team in the league against the No. 9 team this weekend. That's the WCHA and how tough it is to win college hockey's most difficult championship."

Anthony Maiani (Shelby Township, Mich.), Joe Colborne (Calgary, Alberta) and Jesse Martin (Edmonton, Alberta) also scored for the Pioneers, who have won 10 consecutive games. Denver improves to 24-6-4 overall and 18-4-4 in the WCHA, while Minnesota State falls to 14-18-2, 8-17-1.

Marc Cheverie (Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia) stopped a 2-on-1 Minnesota State rush prior to Rakhshani's game-winner, which was setup by Ruegsegger and Patrick Wiercioch (Maple Ridge, British Columbia). Ruegsegger won the faceoff from the right circle sending the puck to Wiercioch, who sent it back to Ruegsegger in the slot. Austin Lee (32 saves) stopped Ruegsegger's quick wrister, but Rakhshani backhanded the rebound into an open net for the heroic game-winning goal.

Rakhshani, Colborne, Ruegsegger, Maiani and Wiercioch each had two points for the Pioneers. Freshman Tyler Pitlick led Minnesota State with two goals.

DU held a 2-1 lead after a penalty-riddled first period. After Pitlick beat Cheverie (36 saves) with a wrist shot on a 2-on-1 rush, Maiani tied the game from the low slot on a 5-on-3 advantage. Colborne closed the scoring with a goal at 19:59.

Martin, who has missed seven games in 2010, scored his first goal since Jan. 1 when he buried a quick wrist shot from the high slot at 10:24 of the middle stanza. Minnesota State cut the lead to 3-2 when Eriah Hayes scored on the power play at 14:14 and tied the game when Pitlick scored unassisted at 17:22.

Denver finished 1-for-6 on the power play, while Minnesota State was 1-for-9. MSU outshot DU, 39-36.

The Pioneers play in-state rival Colorado College on March 5-6. Puck drop is set for 7:37 p.m. on Friday at Magness Arena.

Notes: Denver's top line of Rakhshani, Ruegsegger and Colborne combined for 4-8=12 in the series. Colborne has a three-game goal streak. The 10-game winning streak is DU's longest since winning 12 straight games during the 2001-02 season. The Pioneers have captured 12 WCHA regular-season titles and three (2002, 2005, 2010) under Gwozdecky.