Box Score The University of Nebraska Omaha did something Friday night that no other University of Minnesota Duluth opponent had done in nearly 12 years – give up five goals and still skate away with a victory.
 
The host Mavericks generated their highest goal-scoring output of the 2017-18 season and outslugged the No. 17 Bulldogs 7-5 in the front end of a National Collegiate Hockey Conference series. The five goals were the most UMD  has scored in a loss since Jan. 20, 2007 when it fell 6-5 at St. Cloud State University.

Zach Jordan picked up a hat trick for the Mavericks while UMD sophomore defenseman Nick Wolff turned in the second three-point night of his collegiate career, scoring once and assisting on two other scores. The Bulldogs (7-9-2 overall and 2-7-0-0 in the NCHC), held two leads during the night, the first of those coming 23 seconds after the opening faceoff when senior left winger Avery Peterson, who transferred to UMD from Omaha in January 2016 and was paying his first visit to Baxter Arena as a Bulldog, one-timed a shot off a Wolff feed for his fifth goal of the season. Just 37 seconds into the second period, rookie defenseman and team scoring leader Scott Perunovich put UMD up 4-3, but the Mavericks struck three straight times, including twice on the power play, to take a 6-4 lead into the final intermission. Sophomore right winger Joey Anderson cut the Omaha advantage in half with an unassisted goal 1:25 into the third period only to see Omaha answer eight minutes later and seal the victory.

Both starting netminders were chased from tonight's contest.UMD sophomore goaltender Hunter Shepard gave up five goals and made 13 saves before being replaced by sophomore Nick Deery just after the halfway mark of the game. Deery, whose last appearance came on Nov. 4 in a relief rol,  gave up a pair of goals and made 16 saves in relief. Evan Weninger relinquished his crease responsibilities at the start of the second period for Omaha after allowing three goals on 11 first-period shots. Alex Blankenburg earned his first win of the season giving up two goals and saving 21 shots in 40 minutes of relief.

The Bulldogs went 0-for-6 on the man advantagewhile Omaha capitalized on three of their seven power play opportunities.

"I thought we had a lot of guys playing one-way hockey, we didn't do a good job defensively obviously, but it was more off the rush," said UMD Head Coach Scott Sandelin. "I thought our gaps were poor and our forwards didn't help that but to me at the end of the day some games are going to go back and forth."

UMD faces Omaha (7-7-1; 2-5-0-0) again Saturday night at 7:07 p.m. to wrap up 2017 NCHC play.