Photo Gallery (Courtesy of YaleBulldogs.com)

PITTSBURGH -- Cinderella is a champion.

The Yale Bulldogs, the last team considered for an at-large position in the NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship bracket, made the most of that opportunity and knocked off the four best teams in the bracket -- lastly Quinnipiac on Saturday night -- on its way to its first-ever men's ice hockey national championship. Yale defeated Quinnipiac, its in-state rival, 4-0, to win the national title game. 

Yale (22-12-3) was the first Ivy League team since Cornell in 2003 to earn a trip to the Frozen Four and just the third Ancient Eight team in the last 20 years to make it to the national semifinals joining Harvard in 1994. Before Saturday, the last Ivy team to win the national title was Harvard in 1989. The only other Ivy to win the men's ice hockey national title was Cornell, which won it in 1967 and 1970.

Yale goalkeeper Jeff Malcolm celebrated his 24th birthday with an amazing performance. Shutting down one of the top offenses in the nation, Malcolm may have turned the game around for good when he turned the Bobcats away during a 5-on-3 during the second period. 

Malcolm tied a career-high with 36 saves in his shutout performance to self-create a birthday party he will never forget.

Quinnipiac had an advantage in shots on goal, 36-30, but the Bobcats did a great job of blocking and smothering Yale shots all night long to distort that number. 

Late in the second period, Yale broke the longest scoreless tie in more than 40 years. With just 3.5 seconds left in the period, Clinton Bourbonais took advantage of a relaxed Bobcat defense. As the puck wrapped around the backside, Gus Young found Bourbanis on the left side of the goal. Quinnipiac's defense appeared to be anticipating the horn, leaving Bourbanis open, who scored with just a couple of ticks left to give Yale some momentum.

"We've been stressing getting pucks and bodies to the net, and we threw it to net there and [Bourbonais] tipped it in," said Yale coach Keith Allain. "That gave us momentum going into the third. That forced them to take some chances, and we were patient defensively and counter-attacked pretty well and came out on top."

But the Bulldogs were not about to relax. Charles Orzetti scored just 3:35 into the third -- with help from a Bourbonais assist -- to make it 2-0. Andrew Miller, the 2013 Ivy League Player of the Year, scored on a breakaway midway through the period to put a nail in the coffin and make it a three-goal advantage. Miller was later named the Frozen Four's Most Outstanding Player. 

"We knew they were going to run around a little bit because they were behind, so we took advantage of those opportunities, and I think we shut them down a little bit," Miller said. "They had a flurry at the beginning of the third, and Malcolm sat tall as he has all year."

And then, during a 4-on-4, Quinnipiac gambled by pulling the goalie - and lost - and Jesse Root scored an empty-netter to end any doubt. For Root, it was only fitting to put the final nail in as he was playing in his hometown. 

In going through the bracket, Yale had to beat Minnesota, North Dakota, UMass-Lowell and Quinnipiac -- three No. 1 seeds and a No. 2 seed. Most likely, no other national champion ever had a tough road than the Bulldogs. 

The championship was Yale's first national team title since winning back-to-back national titles in women's fencing in 1984 and 1985. It was the university's first men's national title since winning the men's swimming national title in 1953.

Thursday was Yale's first appearance in the men's ice hockey semifinals in 61 years -- when the tournament was a four-team tournament. 

With Princeton winning the field hockey and fencing national titles earlier this academic year, it is the first time that the Ivy League has won three team national titles in the same year. The Ivies  had won two team national titles in the same year eight times since the League was formed and four more times prior to that. 

Yale, who lost to Quinnipiac three times this year prior to Saturday's meeting, has the lowest winning percentage (.635) for a men's hockey national champ since 1966.