ALBANY, N.Y. – A goalie had a shutout in the NCAA hockey semifinals Thursday, but it wasn't all-time shutout leader Ryan Miller of Michigan State. A team advanced to the national title game, but it wasn't the top-ranked Spartans.

	North Dakota goalie Karl Goehring makes the save as Michgan State's John Nail goes horizontal after taking the shot.

Karl Goehring made sure of that. The North Dakota goalie, supplanted by Miller as the best in the college game this season, made 30 saves as the defending-champion Fighting Sioux beat Michigan State and Miller 2-0 to return to the Frozen Four's championship game where they will face Boston College.

Goehring, a senior who was a first-team All-American in 1999-2000, had his fourth shutout of the year. He insisted he saw Thursday's game as North Dakota against Michigan State, not Ryan Miller against Karl Goehring.

"I took the standpoint of trying to contribute what I could to my team and not worry about a personal battle with Ryan Miller," he said. "He played a great game and kept his team in it. I was focusing on what I could do and focused on our team and I'm just thrilled to death to be going back to the championship."

North Dakota coach Dean Blais said Goehring's competitive nature may have made it impossible for him not to think about besting Miller.

"We've seen that in the last month especially," Blais said. "He didn't have the All-American type of year, but he's broken just about every record at North Dakota for goaltending."

North Dakota (29-7-9), champion of the Western Collegiate Athletic Association, will be playing for its eighth NCAA championship. It has a five-game winning streak in national title games.

In the other game, Boston College beat Michigan 4-2, setting up a rematch of the 2000 championship game. North Dakota won that game 4-2.

Michigan State (33-5-4) had been ranked No. 1 since November, and at one point the Central Collegiate Hockey Association champions had a 23-game unbeaten streak.

But North Dakota was the quicker, more aggressive team Thursday. The Fighting Sioux held a 17-7 edge in shots as they scored both their goals in the first period and took the Spartans out of their forechecking game.

"A textbook first period," Blais said.

Michigan State coach Ron Mason said his team's 10-day layoff since winning a quarterfinal game against Wisconsin on March 25 was evident in the Spartans' slow start Thursday.

"Our kids for one reason or another were nervous in the first period," Mason said.

Any Michigan State hopes that Miller, only a sophomore, would add to his NCAA career-record 18 shutouts ended early. North Dakota's Kevin Spiewak's shot from outside the right circle deflected off Michigan State defenseman Jon Insana, hit the post and went in just 1:15 into the game. The goal came on North Dakota's first shot of the game.

"I don't understand why we sagged there a bit, but we sagged there for the rest of the period," said Michigan State forward Rustyn Dolyny.

The Fighting Sioux made it 2-0 with 4:28 to play in the opening period when Bryan Lundbohm's slapshot on a power play bounced off the boards behind the Michigan State goal right to Ryan Bayda, who poked it between Miller's legs.

Prior to Bayda's goal, Michigan State had killed off 152 of 166 power plays, an amazing 91.6 percent. The Spartans' defense had been allowing on average of only 1.34 goals per game, by far the best in the nation, heading into the semifinals.

North Dakota had an apparent goal waved off when the whistle blew just before Wes Dorey fired the puck over Miller with 7:29 gone in the first period, after a scramble in front of the goal.

Miller also stopped Lundbohm's shot with his mask midway through the second period, just seconds before North Dakota's Jason Notermann hit the post on a blast from inside the blue line.

Miller finished with 34 saves.

Mason said Michigan State played "fine defense" in holding North Dakota to two goals, but he said effective checking by the Fighting Sioux exposed his own team's suspect offense.

"We have to score on the good chances we get and we didn't do it," he said.

Michigan State stepped up its hitting in the third period and got a few better scoring opportunities against Goehring. One of the best chances came with 2:18 to play, but Goehring got a piece of Brad Fast's shot from the left circle. A minute earlier, North Dakota had successfully killed off a penalty against Bayda for holding.