This weekend, the University of Minnesota Duluth is taking part in its first-ever National Collegiate Hockey Conference Frozen Faceoff and the Bulldogs have all intentions of making the most of it.

So far, so good.

The Bulldogs opened up the four-team league playoff tournament with a 4-2 victory over top-ranked University of North Dakota  Friday at the Target Center in Minneapolis to secure a spot in tomorrow night's title game against No. 4 St. Cloud State University, which held off the University of Denver in the other semifinal. The Bulldogs, who will be playing for their first conference post-season championship since claiming the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoff crown in 2009, improved to 18-14-5 on the year while posting their seventh consecutive triumph. North Dakota, which came into the night sporting an eight-game winning streak, falls to 30-6-3.

UMD's Target Center debut started in ominous fashion as North Dakota took a 1-0 lead on its first shot on goal just 49 seconds after the opening faceoff. The Bulldogs, who had scored just twice on Fighting Hawks goalie Cam Johnson in nearly 244 minutes during the regular season (when it went 0-4-0 against North Dakota), struck for two goals in three minutes early in the second period. The first came from junior center Dominic Toninato on a sharp angle shot near the bottom of the left faceoff circle 28 seconds in. Junior Alex Iafallo's redirect of a centering feed from junior defenseman Willie Raskob at the 3:46 mark put the Bulldogs ahead for good. Midway through that same period, senior defenseman Willie Corrin unloaded a bomb from the left point that was tipped over the shoulder of Johnson by senior left winger Austin Farley. With five minutes to go before the second intermission, Troy Stecher cut the North Dakota deficit to one at 3-2, but that's as close as the NCHC regular season champions would get as Toninato sealed the win with his 15th goal of the season, driving in a shot from the low slot.

Both sophomore Kasimir Kaskisuo, who was started 48 of the past 49 games, and Johnson finished with 22 saves.

"I thought it was a great hockey game," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin.  "It was exactly what we expected and very similar to how the two teams played their series last month in Grand Forks (where North Dakota skated away with back-to-back 2-1 wins). We didn't have a great start. I thought we were a tad tentative early and they capitalized, but our guys kept their composure and kept playing. Obviously, it was huge to get that goal at the start the second period and that whole period was big for us. It was just a real good team effort and we are excited to be moving on to tomorrow"

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NOTES: The Bulldogs went 0-for-4 on the power play and held North Dakota scoreless on both of its opportunities with the man advantage ... Dominic Toninato, Alex Iafallo, Willie Raskob and freshman right winger Adam Johnson all posted two-point nights ... Senior center Tony Cameranesi extended his personal scoring streak to seven games (a 2015-16 UMD season high) with a secondary assist on Austin Farley's goal ... Tonight marked just the third time this winter the Bulldogs have pulled out a win after giving up the first goal. They are now 3-10-2 in that situation ... Dominic Toninato's 15 goals are a team high and one shy of his career best which he set one year ago. Four of those goals have come during UMD's current seven-game victory run ... Nine of Willie Raskob's 39 career points have come at the expense of North Dakota (23.1 percent).