It wasn't a lack of shots that did in the University of Minnesota Duluth Friday night in Omaha. It was the lack of shots the Bulldogs managed to get past Evan Weninger.

UMD sent 47 pucks Weninger's way -- including nearly a couple dozen Grade A scoring chances -- and the Maverick netminder turned away all but two while backstopping No. 8 Omaha to a 4-2 triumph in the Bulldogs's National Collegiate Hockey Conference debut and their first visit ever to the new Baxter Arena. The 47 shots were the most generated by a UMD club in over a year (48 in a 6-1 rout of the University of Denver on Oct. 25, 2014 in Duluth).

The Mavericks (7-2-0 overall; 1-2-0-0/0 NCHC) struck just 24 seconds after the opening face off on Brian Cooper's goal from between the face off circles to take a lead it would never relinquish the rest of the night. Fredrik Olofsson scored with 2:56 remaining in the first period to put the Omaha up 2-0 before the two clubs each cashed in once on the power play in the second period.  UMD senior left winger Austin Farley rapped in a rebound for his team-leading fourth goal of the season at 10:59 and Austin Ortega (while Bulldog sophomore left winger was serving a five-minute major penalty for interference) answered for the Mavericks six minutes later.

UMD (3-3-2; 0-1-0-0/0) trimmed the deficit to 3-2 at 5:11 of third when junior right winger Kyle Osterberg backhanded in a rebound off a shot from senior defenseman Willie Corrin, but Weninger and Omaha withstood a Bulldog barrage (they outshot the Mavericks 19-6 in the final 20 minutes of play) and eventually iced the victory with a empty net goal with 1:13 to go. Sophomore Kasimir Kaskisuo, the only goaltender the UMD has used in its 25 NCHC outings over the past two seasons, was credited with 24 saves.

The Bulldogs, who are without the services of injured senior center Tony Cameranesi (their leading scorer) this weekend, will look to avoid being swept for the first time in a regular season series since Feb. 21-22, 2014 (the University of North Dakota at home) on Saturday night when they meet the Mavericks for the final time at least until the 2015-16 postseason.