Actually, we were the 15th seed," Miller said.

And ultimately, the last one standing.

Miller capped his brilliant career with a breakaway goal in the third period, Jeff Malcolm stopped all 36 Quinnipiac shots and the Bulldogs won their first NCAA championship with a 4-0 victory Saturday night.

It was sweet revenge for Yale (22-12-3), which lost the three previous meetings with the top-seeded Bobcats by a combined 13-3. The nation's oldest hockey program, however, left no doubt in the final, riding the play of Malcolm and some unlikely offensive contributions to capture a title 117 years in the making.

"Tonight was our turn," Yale coach Keith Allain said.

The Bulldogs have been playing hockey since 1896 but had only made the tournament twice before Allain took over in 2006. The Yale graduate accepted the job with the promise from his bosses the school would do what it takes to be competitive. In seven seasons he guided the Bulldogs all the way to the top.

"I came back to prove you could go to the best university in the world and prove you can play hockey at the highest level," Allain said.

Yale did it throughout the tournament, knocking off three No. 1 seeds, including its Connecticut rivals from just down the street. Quinnipiac (30-8-5) located less than 10 miles from the Yale campus spent most of the year ranked No. 1.

The Bobcats (30-8-5) hardly looked like it after Yale's Clint Bourbonais redirected a shot between goalie Eric Hartzell's legs with 4 seconds left in the second period and freshman Charles Orzetti scored his first goal in four months 3:35 into the third to make it 2-0.

Miller, the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, then broke loose and flipped a backhand by Hartzell for his 18th goal of the season. Pittsburgh native Jesse Root added an empty netter to set the coronation in motion.

"You've got to play your game," Miller said. "We had some great players on our team. A lot of guys that don't get noticed, they're our heroes."

Hartzell stopped 27 shots, but the Hobey Baker finalist let in a couple of soft goals that gave Yale all the momentum it would need.

"I thought we were the best team in college hockey for the season," Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said. "Unfortunately, we didn't prove it tonight."

The Bobcats dominated the season series, sweeping all three meetings by a combined score of 13-3. Quinnipiac trailed for all of 18 minutes in the three games combined and Hartzell allowed only one goal in the previous eight periods against Yale.

Yet Pecknold insisted the Bulldogs weren't the same team the Bobcats steamrolled 3-0 three weeks ago in the ECAC tournament consolation game. Yale tripped up national powers Minnesota and North Dakota to make the Frozen Four for the first time since 1952, then edged UMass Lowell 3-2 in overtime in the semifinals Thursday.

On the biggest stage, the Bulldogs finally put it together behind Malcolm.

The senior celebrated his 24th birthday by keeping the tournament's highest-scoring team at bay, including a crucial 5-on-3 penalty kill in the second period that kept the game tied. The Yale fans serenaded the goaltender with "Happy Birthday" during one stoppage in play, and Malcolm responded by taking turning away Yale's nemesis one breathtaking stop at a time.

Ultimately, Hartzell blinked first.

The clock winding down late in the second period, Young flipped what appeared to be an innocent shot from just outside the left circle. Bourbonais slapped his stick on the ice just as the puck rolled past him a few feet in front of the crease. The change of direction sent the puck between Hartzell's legs to give Yale an unlikely lead and a major boost heading into the final intermission of the season.

Quinnipiac attempted to respond early in the third, flying around the Yale net in the same way the Bobcats overwhelmed St. Cloud State on Thursday. Malcolm, in perfect position nearly every time, maintained his composure.

His teammates repaid his hard work with another unlikely goal. Orzetti, a freshman who hadn't scored since Dec. 8, streaked down the left wing and fired a shot at Hartzell. The rebound trickled to Hartzell's right and Orzetti slammed home his own rebound between the goalie's legs to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead.

The soft goals were uncharacteristic of Hartzell's outstanding season. Yet they counted anyway.

"Without Hartzy we're not here, we don't go to the Frozen Four," Pecknold said."He was awesome all year for us."

Just not in the final 21 minutes of the season.

Miller, who scored in overtime in the semifinals against Lowell, broke through 9:06 into the third to make it 3-0. The Bobcats panicked, pulling Hartzell with 7:19 remaining.

The ploy lasted all of 20 seconds. Root delivered the puck into the empty net and drained any drama out of the final 7 minutes. Confetti rained down at the final horn as the Bulldogs mobbed Malcolm in celebration.

"In the NCAA tournament anybody can beat anybody," Miller said. "Whoever has the hottest goalie, best team game wins."

How can students prepare to avoid this employment gap? By creating their own opportunities as entrepreneurs. What steps should you take if you think being a business owner is in your future? John Robitaille, executive in residence at Larry Friedman International Center for Entrepreneurship at Johnson & Wales University, suggests the following tips to prepare to launch your own small business:

1. Find your passion. Entrepreneurs often spend countless hours toiling away before they earn any money. It's important to choose something you enjoy and are willing to commit your time, effort and energy to doing. Robitaille says, " should love what they do and be passionate about it. The money will come later."

2. Prepare for a lot of hard work. Robitaille reminds would-be entrepreneurs that the difference between a hobby and a successful business is hard work. "Be prepared to make personal sacrifices, take risks and learn from failures," he says. "Some entrepreneurs get lucky, most achieve success through focus, hard work and persistence."

3. Create a plan. While not every business starts with a formal plan, formalizing your idea by creating a business plan can help you avoid roadblocks and make your dream a reality. Robitaille says: "Start by drafting an outline for your business plan. Be as comprehensive and detailed as you can and try to flesh out many important areas [such as] your executive summary, mission, value proposition, key competitors, differentiators, pricing, financial projections, start-up capital requirements, formal business type and operations timeline."

If you have a tough time getting started, you can find . Robitaille suggests you keep it simple and remember you'll probably change it many times.

4. Take advantage of on-campus resources. Make a point to try to identify a mentor. Robitaille suggests you "seek guidance from faculty members, alumni, professors and career counselors. They have the experience, skills and even networking connections to point you in the right direction."

If your university has a business or entrepreneurship center, be sure to take advantage of it. He notes: "A mentor or adviser will be able to help get you started as you map out your business plan, as well as connect you with key tools and resources such as financial and legal professionals. They can also help you identify and resolve potential obstacles."

5. Learn business fundamentals in the classroom. Even if you're not a business major, you shouldn't miss the opportunity to select classes in business, marketing or finance. If you're a new grad, look for continuing education opportunities or weekend seminars to pick upand learn things you may need to know. Topics Robitaille suggests include accounting for small businesses, marketing and operations management. "You need a good understanding of how business operates to commercialize your ideas," he notes.

6. Intern in the industry to get real world experience. A great way to get hands-on experience in your target field is to intern. Not only can you pick up tips about how other companies or entrepreneurs handle the types of issues you may face as a small business owner, you'll find out whether or not you really love the field and industry and if it's worth the time and effort it will take to launch your own business. Robitaille reminds college students and recent grads that on-campus career centers should be able to help connect you with internship opportunities. However, even if they don't offer suitable positions, using social media to network, you should be able towith influencers and key contacts yourself. Successful people are usually willing to share their experiences with fledgling entrepreneurs.

7. Fund your venture. While many companies can start off on a shoestring budget, ultimately, you may need funding to scale your business. Robitaille notes: "Many universities offer entrepreneurial scholarships and awards for students who are working to jump-start their dream businesses."

Crowd funding may also be a good option for you. Websites like Kickstarter.com can help you solicit the needed funds to take your business to the next step. You won't be the first startup to be funded primarily by family, friends and networking contacts.

Miriam Salpeter is a job search and social media consultant, career coach, author, speaker, resume writer, and owner of . She is author of Social Networking for Career Success and 100 Conversations for Career Success.Miriam teaches job seekers and entrepreneurs how to incorporatesocial media tools along with traditional strategies to reach theirgoals.

Derick Brassard and Nash both scored power-play goals, with help from Callahan in the first, and Mats Zuccarello found the net for the second straight game to give the playoff-hopeful Rangers their sixth win in nine games (6-2-1).

Zuccarello scored in the second period and then added his second of the night with 4:49 left in the game when he tipped the puck in after Brad Richards raced it up ice and fed in front. Brassard made it 5-1 just 1:24 later with his second of the game, with an assist from Nash, and Richards pushed the lead to five goals with 1:24 remaining.

New York had a lackluster 4-2 loss at Philadelphia on Tuesday that allowed Winnipeg to get even in points in the tight Eastern race. The Rangers (22-17-4) have five games left.

Henrik Lundqvist made 34 saves for his 20th win of the season. Even in this lockout-shortened, 48-game season, Lundqvist reached 20 wins for the eighth straight time.

Jonathan Huberdeau scored in the second period for Florida (13-24-6), which has an NHL-low 32 points. Scott Clemmensen stopped 24 shots, but the Panthers lost their fourth in a row and for the fifth time in six games.

The Rangers found their offense by taking advantage of the NHL's worst penalty-killing unit in the first period. New York had been 0-for-14 with the advantage in its previous four games, but connected on its first two tries to grab an early 2-0 lead.

Brassard got it started at 3:05 after Callahan had a shot blocked by Clemmensen. Nash got the puck behind the net and found Brassard in front with a pass, leading to a goal from the doorstep. It was Brassard's ninth goal of the season and second in eight games since he came to the Rangers on the day of the trade deadline from the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Nash, a former Blue Jackets star now in his first season with New York, netted his 18th goal at 9:10 with a blistering wrist shot from the right circle off the rush after Callahan passed the puck across to him during another power play.

It is the fourth time this season the Rangers scored more than one goal on their power play that came in ranked 20th in the NHL and produced only 20 goals in the previous 42 games.

On the flip side, the Panthers came in having killed only 73.5 of their short-handed situations this season. Florida improved in the second period, turning aside both New York advantages.

However, with the teams at even strength, Zuccarello pushed the Rangers' lead to 3-1 at 16:34 with a backhanded shot from right in front after Ryan Clowe skated back and forth behind the net before getting the puck to him.

Huberdeau had gotten the Panthers within 2-1 with 4:43 left in the first when he used a brilliant skating move to get around Zuccarello in the Rangers end and beat Lundqvist with a shot for his 14th of the season.

NOTES: The Rangers were without C Brian Boyle, who injured his right leg on Tuesday. He is expected to miss games at Buffalo on Saturday and home against New Jersey on Sunday, too. ... Callahan, who played in his 400th NHL game, received the team's Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award for the fourth time in five years. He and Adam Graves (five) are the only four-time winners. ... The Rangers agreed to terms with undrafted free agent forward Michael Kantor. ... Florida recalled D Alex Petrovic from San Antonio of the AHL and he made his NHL debut. ... The Panthers have used 37 players this season. ... The Rangers are 24-6-3 in their last 33 games against Southeast Division opponents, including an 9-3-1 this season. ... New York has earned at least one point in 89 consecutive games when leading after the second period, dating to the 2009-10 season. The Rangers are 83-0-6 in that span, including 13-0 this season

The catch is that any video game that isn't a complete flop gets a follow-up these days. And as "Dead Island Riptide" (Deep Silver, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, $49.99; PC, $39.99) begins, the zombie virus has infected the ship that rescued the survivors and they soon wash up on another undead-infested tropical paradise, called Palanai.

So it's time for the old gang Rapper Sam B, hotel clerk Xian, ex-cop Purna and jock Logan, along with a newbie, a Navy cook named John to sharpen their machetes and get back to work. You can play as any one of the quintet, and you can team up with friends online to try to even the odds against the ravenous hordes.

The core zombies, called Walkers, are easy to kill mano-a-mano but can take you down quickly if they gang up on you. Other creatures can strike from a distance, throwing explosives or vomiting acid. The Suiciders, who explode if you get too close, are the deadliest until you scrounge up some firearms. The most troublesome new "Riptide" monster is the Screamer, whose wails render you briefly confused and powerless.

Your weapons start off simple say, a baseball bat or a kitchen knife but as you explore Palanai, you'll discover more effective tools of destruction, from machetes to machine guns. "Riptide" also carries over the original game's clever weapon-crafting system, so you can create increasingly baroque devices like an electrified samurai sword.

This is not a moody character drama like Telltale's "The Walking Dead," the landmark episodic game that won so many industry awards last year. Indeed, it's closer in spirit to the awful "Walking Dead" game Activision published this year it's all about the thrill of lopping undead heads clean off. The unapologetic gore and squishy sound effects are amusing for a while, but start to get old after about five or six hours.

That's when you realize "Riptide" is essentially the same game as its two-year-old parent. There are a few new additions, like motorboats you can maneuver around Palanai's swamps, but almost every mission is the same: get from point A to point B without getting eaten. A handful of sieges, in which all the characters defend a base from undead swarms, break up the monotony, but too often I found myself asking, "This again?"

Deep Silver is justifying the repetition by pitching "Riptide" as an expansion of the "Dead Island" world rather than a true sequel; perhaps its creator, the Polish studio Techland, has some genuine innovations up its sleeve for "Dead Island 2." But that doesn't excuse the fact that "Riptide" is beset by the same glitches that marred the original, including graphical hiccups, goofy artificial intelligence, inconsistent maps and disappearing inventory items.

Despite such sloppiness as well as plotting that's ridiculous even by zombie-story standards "Riptide" is amusing in spurts, especially if you can gather an online posse to deal with the hungry hordes. Still, I wish Techland had spent some time addressing the series' problems rather than just shoveling out more of the same. Two stars out of four.

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Follow Lou Kesten on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lkesten

(Reuters) - Twitter has struck one of its biggest advertising deals to date with media agency Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG), the companies said, in the social media site's latest effort to boost revenue.

The multi-year agreement, which includes preferred inventory and a direct pipeline into Twitter's data feed for media planning purposes, is worth up to hundreds of millions of dollars, according to sources familiar with the deal. They declined to be named because the transaction details are private.

"In about 18 months, Twitter has gone from an experiment to essential," said Laura Desmond, global chief executive of Starcom, in an interview about the partnership on Monday.

"The deal is about research and experiences on behalf of SMG's clients," said Adam Bain, president of global revenue at Twitter.

As part of the worldwide firm Publicis Groupe, SMG buys and plans media on behalf of clients ranging from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd to Kellogg Co. The partnership marks a significant win for Twitter which has been courting Madison Avenue to expand its advertising business.

With 200 million users, Twitter has become extremely popular for its effective way of sharing short, 140-character messages. But the fast growing social media site now in its seventh year is furiously ramping up its ability to make revenue in the face of stiff competition from Facebook Inc and Google Inc.

Twitter is expected to generate less than $600 million in revenue this year, according to the research firm eMarketer.

The partnership with SMG culminated last fall after a strategy planning session between Desmond and Twitter Chief Executive Dick Costolo. SMG is making a push to connect traditional media buys like TV commercials and glossy ad pages in magazines with chatter on social media across the Web.

As part of the agreement, Twitter and SMG will co-create a virtual lab to research how people tweet and watch TV.

Twitter has also partnered with TV viewership company Nielsen to measure what people are saying on Twitter about TV shows.

Additionally, Twitter and SMG will launch a mobile product to survey users in real-time.

"We think agencies play a big role bringing interesting new ideas to the platform and we want to support that," said Bain, adding that Twitter plans to form more of these types of partnerships. "We want to create a great framework to measure."

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York; Editing by Richard Chang)

Zynga shares jumped 4 percent in heavy premarket trading after the press release, on website www.prurgent.com, said Baidu would offer $10 per share for the company.

Zynga shares eased back to $3.24, up 1.5 percent, in morning trade on the Nasdaq.

Baidu's director of international communications, Kaiser Kuo, said the statement was false. Zynga was not available for comment.

The statement appeared to have been removed from the PR*Urgent website by mid-morning.

Zynga shares peaked at $15.91 early last year on the strength of its "Farmville" hit game, but struggled after its games lost their prominence on the Facebook social networking site.

Zynga is scheduled to report first-quarter results on Wednesday and Baidu on Thursday.

(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Rodney Joyce)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Just days after the Alaska Legislature lowered taxes on the oil industry, ConocoPhillips announced plans to boost investment on North Slope fields.

ConocoPhillips is planning to bring an additional rig to the Kuparuk field this spring and working with co-owners to fund a new drill site on the Kuparuk River field, the company said in a Wednesday announcement.

It's also beginning the regulatory and permitting stage and starting engineering for the Greater Moose's Tooth unit in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

"These are some examples of the activities ConocoPhillips plans to kick off in the near future to help bring new investments and produce more oil from legacy and satellite fields," ConocoPhillips Alaska President Trond-Erik Johansen said in a release.

How much this would cost the company wasn't immediately clear and probably wouldn't be until the company completes it's planning and engineering process.

"We don't have hard numbers yet, but we are on a path to bring these for approval, and that's good news," company spokeswoman Natalie Lowman told The Associated Press.

The announcement came after lawmakers approved SB 21, championed by Gov. Sean Parnell as a way to address the trend of declining production on the North Slope. High oil prices the past few years have helped mask the decline.

Parnell's third attempt to upend the former tax system, known as ACES, championed by former Gov. Sarah Palin was approved by lawmakers Sunday.

Parnell said he was encouraged by the announcement.

"We are seeing the first steps in Alaska's oil comeback," he said in an email to the AP.

"By creating a more competitive, stable tax system, Alaska is now positioned for a resurgence in investment. Alaskans will benefit from this increased investment announced by ConocoPhillips Alaska and its working interest owners in these fields," Parnell said.

The new plan approved by lawmakers removes the progressive surcharge that has been credited with helping fatten state coffers and revamps offered credits with a goal of focusing them on new production. Oil companies had complained that the surcharge triggered when a company's production tax value hits $30 a barrel cut too deeply into their profits when prices are high, discouraging new investment.

The bill passed Sunday includes a 35 percent base tax rate and $5 allowance per taxable barrel of oil produced. The allowance would apply to what would be considered new oil and production that also would qualify for a 20 percent tax break known as a gross revenue exclusion. Certain units comprised exclusively of leases with higher royalty rates, and those not getting royalty relief from the state, could qualify for a 30 percent tax break.

Administration officials have said they expect the vast majority of Alaska's legacy fields would be subject to a 35 percent base rate and a per-barrel allowance on a sliding scale, which would be higher at lower prices and nothing when oil prices are high, about $160 a barrel.

Critics warn that this is nothing but a giveaway to Big Oil, and said the state treasury could suffer billions of dollars in losses over the next few years. ConocoPhillips executives had testified that they believed the tax changes would lead to additional production and investment but couldn't quantify it at the time.

Lowman said the company didn't identify these projects then because they were waiting for a final bill.

"Until it's a done deal, we really don't know how the economics affect all our projects," Lowman said.

ConocoPhillips and others testified at the time that the bill, if passed, would make Alaska more attractive for investment.

"These are examples of projects that we have been prepared to do if meaningful changes were made to ACES," she said. "With the passage of the bill and what we believe is a more attractive business climate, we're now moving forward to aggressively advance these projects."

Rep. Eric Feige, co-chair of the House Resources Committee, noted that this was the kind of investment that he expected to follow SB21.

"This is certainly a great start," Feige, R-Chickaloon, said. "I expect that as they have the opportunity to run more projects up the company flagpole that we will probably see more of this kind of investment."

Ray Metcalfe, a former state legislator, has announced that he is pursuing a public vote to overturn the new tax. The "Vote Yes! Repeal the Giveaway" organization plans a news conference Thursday afternoon in Anchorage to announce sponsors.

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Associated Press reporter Joshua Berlinger in Juneau contributed to this report.