The University of Minnesota Duluth had a golden opportunity to land a home ice berth in the upcoming National Collegiate Hockey Conference playoffs Saturday, but Western Michigan University saw to it that the Bulldogs will be on the road from here on out by nailing down a 3-0 regular season finale victory over its league rivals in Kalamazoo, Mich.

A Bulldog victory would have vaulted them past the University of Denver for the fourth, and final home spot. Denver fell 4-2 to host St. Cloud State University on Saturday night and wound up finishing two points ahead of the Bulldogs.

No. 6 UMD (20-13-3; 12-9-3-0 NCHC) generated a season-low 18 shots while being shut out for the second time this season. Western Michigan, which was already assured of a seventh-place NCHC finish coming into the night, scored once in the second period and added a power play goal midway through the third before icing the triumph with an empty net tally with 1:13 to go in regulation.

The Bulldogs, who bested the Broncos (13-16-5; 6-13-5-4) 6-3 Friday night, went 0-for-4 on the power play and got a 27-save effort from freshman netminder Kasimir Kaskisuo. Western Michigan connected on one of its five chances with the man advantage and that came at 11:37 of the third while UMD senior right winger Adam Krause was serving a five-minute major and game misconduct penalty for kneeing.

Junior defenseman Willie Corrin, junior center Tony Cameranesi and sophomore defenseman Willi Raskob paced the Bulldogs with three shots each. The loss was UMD's first in six lifetime visits to the Lawson Ice Center (5-1-0).

The Bulldogs will be Denver for the opening round of the NCHC playoffs. That best-of-three event begins on Friday night.