Next man up.

With five key players out of the lineup while skating for the U.S. at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, the University of Minnesota Duluth coaching staff needed a collective effort from their troops Saturday afternoon in Hanover, N.H. The No. 17 Bulldogs delivered big-time, coming through with a 5-0 throttling of Yale University to open up the 29th annual Ledyard Classic.

UMD got a 29-save shutout performance from sophomore goaltender Hunter Shepard and two-point outings from five different skaters en route to evening its 2017-18 overall record at 9-9-2. Despite being without the services of forwards Joey Anderson and Riley Tufte and defensemen Mikey Anderson, Scott Perunovich and Dylan Samberg, who collectively had accounted for 37.3 percent of UMD's points and 46.2 percent of its power play production, the Bulldogs still equaled 2017-18 single-game highs for both margin of victory and power play goals (they were 3-of-4 in that department).

The Bulldogs built a 3-0 lead midway through the game by striking on three consecutive man advantage opportunities, with junior Parker Mackay (with 2.3 seconds to go in the first period), senior right winger Karson Kuhlman and senior left winger Blake Young doing the honors. Senior center Jared Thomas and Young then scored 91 seconds apart in the third period just after UMD had killed off a five-minute, contact to the head major (and game disqualification) penalty on senior defenseman Nick McCormack. The Bulldogs of Yale failed to cash in on a  two-minute 5-on-3 advantage during that stretch after rookie defenseman Louie Roehl was whistled for interference.

Young, who registered the first multiple-goal night of his UMD career, Kuhlman, Mackay, and freshmen forwards Justin Richards and  Nick Swaney, all contributed two points to the Bulldog scoring coffers.

Shepard (9-7-0), making his 15th straight start, made 10 saves in each of the first two periods on his way to posting career shutout No. 3

The Bulldogs will close the books on 2017 Saturday night by taking on tournament host Dartmouth College in the first meeting between the two clubs since Dec. 30, 1995.