Box Score Too little, too late.

The University of Minnesota Duluth nearly dug itself out of a three-goal hole, scoring twice in the final 90 seconds of regulation, before running out of time and falling 3-2 to Western Michigan University to open a best-of-three National Collegiate Hockey Conference series Friday night. 

The visiting Broncos, who lost three of four games to UMD during the regular season, drew first blood with a power play goal at the 17:25 mark of the opening period and then doubled their lead 25 seconds into the third. Later that period with Bulldog goalie Aaron Crandall off for an extra attacker, Western Michigan's Will Kessel fired a shot from 150 feet out into an empty net to go up 3-0. That came with 1:42 left in regulation and 12 seconds later sophomore center Cal Decowski got UMD on the board by redirecting a pass from sophomore defenseman Willie Corrin. UMD again pulled Crandall, and with 16.7 second to play, senior left winger Max Tardy made it 3-2 when he took Justin Crandall's feed, drove to the side of the net and banked in a shot off Western Michigan netminder Lukas Hafner.  Hafner finished the night with 31 saves and Aaron Crandall had 19 stops while losing for the first time in five appearances (3-1-0) against the Broncos.

"We turned the puck over a little too much tonight," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin, who is 10-4-0 lifetime in home conference playoff games. "Western Michigan played well defensively and clogged up the shooting lanes (they had 18 blocked shots). Unfortunately for us, our goals came too late."

UMD (16-15-4 overall) now faces a do-or-die situation Saturday night at AMSOIL Arena.

"The biggest thing for us tomorrow is we have to come out right away and initiate the pace" said sophomore defenseman Andy Welinski. "We also have to get our shots of quicker and not let them get into the lanes."