CHICAGO - Former University of Minnesota Duluth equipment manager Rick Menz doesn't remember the exact game, but he remembers the incident well.

The UMD men's hockey team was playing Harvard, the same team the Bulldogs beat 2-1 on Thursday in the Frozen Four at United Center, and Crimson jerseys suddenly went missing - possibly during their 1985 NCAA Division I quarterfinal series in Duluth.

"I can't narrow it down if it was that, or a time we played them in the regular season," Menz said in a phone interview this week.

Menz said that at the time, there never were enough locker rooms at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center.

"They could use both locker rooms for practice, but at night, they had to move all their stuff into one side," Menz said. "All there was separating it was a wire cage with a padlock on it, but guys could reach in with a stick and try to slide stuff underneath."

The rapscallions got a hold of three Harvard jerseys, as Menz recalled.

Jim Toninato of Duluth, the father of UMD senior center Dominic Toninato, laughed upon learning about the incident on Thursday, shortly after arriving at United Center for the Frozen Four.

Jim Toninato was part of that 1985 Bulldogs' team.

"It wasn't me," the elder Toninato said while holding his hands up in innocence. "That's funny."

It wasn't funny to Menz. He had never had an incident like that in nearly 30 years as equipment manager.

It didn't take long, or much, to solve the case.

Before the game Menz went and looked up in the crowd and saw three local high school hockey players sticking out from the maroon and gold crowd while wearing their Crimson jerseys. They certainly hadn't gone to Harvard.

"Those jerseys have that distinctive color to them, and that's what caught my eye," Menz said. "I looked up and was like, 'Really? Are you that stupid?'

"So we got a hold of the cop, and the cop went up there and got the jerseys back. I really couldn't tell you whatever happened to those kids."

While those high schoolers may have gotten in trouble, they got a story that lasted a lot longer.