Box Score Western Michigan University's first-ever victory over the University of Minnesota Duluth came when it counted the most -- with conference points on the line.

The Broncos overcame a 3-2 second-period deficit by striking for four unanswered goals, including a pair by Colton Hargrove, and downed the Bulldogs 5-3 at AMSOIL Arena Friday night. The two clubs were meeting for the fifth time ever, but the first as league opponents (in the fledgling National Collegiate Hockey Conference). The loss was the third in a row for UMD, which fell to 6-8-0 overall and 2-5-0-0 in the NCHC.  Western Michigan, now 1-4-0 lifetime against the Bulldogs, moved to 7-7-0 and 3-4-0-0.

The Bulldogs sandwiched goals from junior right winger Justin Crandall and rookie right winger Sammy Spurrell around an even-strength score by Western Michigan's David Killip in a span of 3:13 late in the first period to take a 2-1 lead into the break. Crandall, with the Bulldogs a man up, banged in his own rebound on  for his team-leading seventh goal of the season and Spurrell scored from in close off a feed from sophomore Charlie Sampair.  Chase Balisy drew the Broncos even 2:29 into the second period, but Kyle Osterberg answered 90 seconds later by going top shelf on Western Michigan goaltender Lukas Hafner. Justin Kovacs got the equalizer at the 5:00 mark and Hargrove then put the Broncos up for good less than two minutes after that. 

"We've got to be more mentally prepared," said Crandall, who also picked up an assist in the setback. "We had a little bit of lapse there in the second period and it cost us. The shift after you score a goal is always huge in hockey. Unfortunately, we gave them most of those shifts tonight."

Sophomore Matt McNeely made eight saves before being replaced by Aaron Crandall following the fourth Western Michigan goal. Crandall made 12 stops the rest of the way while Hafner finished with 20 saves on the night.

The series rematch, UMD's final outing of 2013, is set for 7:08 p.m. Saturday and will be carried nationally on CBS Sports Network.