Avery Peterson scored twice and Hunter Shepard took care of business at the other end of the rink to propel the University of Minnesota Duluth to a 3-0 triumph over Western Michigan University in its 2017-18 National Collegiate Hockey Conference home debut Friday night.

While registering his second career shutout (the other of which came just 13 days ago at the University of Maine), Shepard made 22 saves against a Western Michigan club that racked up 13 goals while sweeping then top-ranked University of Denver last weekend. He also did his part in holding the No. 18 Broncos (5-4-1 overall; 2-1-0-0 NCHC) scoreless on all four of their power play opportunities.

"I think I just felt kind of calm tonight," said Shepard, a sophomore who was making his fifth straight start of the year and ninth as a Bulldog. " I wasn't chasing pucks."

Junior center Peter Krieger put the No.12 Bulldogs (5-4-2; 1-2-0-0) up 1-0 midway through the first period when he took a feed from freshman left winger Kobe Roth and one-timed a shot from the low slot that rolled over the rights shoulder of Western Michigan netminder Ben Blacker. Peterson, who had been sidelined the previous four games with an upper body injury, doubled that lead 47 seconds into the third period by making a nifty toe grade move before firing in a wrister between the the faceoff circles. Ten minutes later -- and with UMD on its sixth, and final, power play of the night -- he scored on a redirect for his fourth goal of the season.

"I  thought early on we looked a bit jittery, like we were trying hard not to make mistakes." said UMD Head Coach Scott Sandelin. "But we took care of the puck better in the third period and structurally we played well in our system. That third goal by Avery certainly helped --  it took some of the pressure off."

The two teams will close out the two-game series Saturday night at 7:05 p.m.