The University of Minnesota Duluth used a balanced scoring attack and stellar goaltending to take down Minnesota State University-Mankato 3-1 Saturday night at AMSOIL Arena.

Eight different Bulldogs each picked one point in the non-conference home victory while sophomore netminder Hunter Shepard made 33 saves as UMD improved to 7-6-2 overall.  No. 8 Minnesota State, which was facing its one-time Western Collegiate Hockey Conference rival for the first time in three years, is now 9-5-0 on the year.

No.16 UMD took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission on goals from freshman right winger Nick Swaney and junior center Peter Krieger. Swaney, who had been sidelined the past six games with an upper body injury, sniped a shot from inside the right face off circle while Krieger scored off a rebound with 10.2 seconds remaining for his fourth goal of the season.  Minnesota State cut the Bulldog lead to 2-1 on Ian Scheid's even-strength goal 5:13 into the second period, but Shepard went into shutdown mode the rest of the way en route to hiking his 2017-18 record to 7-5-0. Sophomore left winger Riley Tufte banged home senior right winger Karson Kuhlman's rebound with 1:27 to go in regulation for his team-leading sixth goal of the year to round out the scoring.

"They are not an easy team to play against," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin. "It was just one of those nights where it wasn't our best game, but our guys found a way to win. I thought Hunter was great and our best player tonight was our goalie, no question. It was a good win for our club against a good team."

The Bulldogs, who will face the Mavericks in the back end of this elongated home-and-home series on Jan. 23 in Mankato, were outshot (34-26) for only the third time in 15 games this year.

"This was a huge non-conference win for us," said Tufte.  "I think it's going to come in handy down the stretch."

UMD will remain at home next Friday and Saturday (Dec. 1-2) to take on the University of Denver in a rematch of last April's NCAA Frozen Four title bout.

"We got four games left until the Christmas break and they are four big conference games," said Kuhlman.  "We need to start getting some points in our leage and begin leapfrogging a few teams."