Box Score Western Michigan University holds the distinction of being the only team to beat the University of Minnesota Duluth twice this season. On Friday night, the Bulldogs saw to it that -- at least for now -- there would be no third time.

No. 3 UMD got goals from five different players and sophomore center Adam Johnson added three assists in a 5-2 triumph over the No. 8 Broncos in the semifinals of the Frozen Four Faceoff at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn. The Bulldogs will now take on  No. 11 University of North Dakota for the the Frozen Faceoff title Saturday night. The Fighting Hawks bested No. 1 University of Denver 1-0 in the other semfinal Friday.

UMD never trailed the entire night, but did lose one-goal leads on two different occasions, the last of which came at 7:10 of the second period when Western Michigan's Colt Conrad knotted the game at 2-2. Senior left winger Alex Iafallo put the Bulldogs (24-6-7) ahead for good  nine minutes later with a missile from the left faceoff circle that beat Western Michigan goaltender Ben Blacker to the glove side. Iafallo also was credited with the primary assist on senior center Dominic Toninato's first-period goal to extend his scoring streak to a personal-high 10 games.  With 5:02 to go in the third period, sophomore right winger Parker Mackay banged in a shot off a perfectly-placed feed from Johnson to make it 4-2 before junior center Jared Thomas launched a puck 185 feet into an empty Western Michigan net for his third goal in four games. Senior left winger Kyle Osterberg also scored (doing so drawing a tripping penalty and falling forward) for the Bulldogs, who are now 12-1-3 over their last 16 games with that once loss (7-4) coming to Western Michigan earlier this month.

UMD rookie netminder Hunter Miska finished with 24 saves while Blacker made 18 stops. Miska (23-4-5), who has now made 31 straight starts, was integral in holding the Broncos (22-11-5) scoreless on all five of their power play chances. UMD went 1-for-5 with the man advantage while securing its second straight appearance in the NCHC  Frozen Four championship bout.

"It probably wasn't the prettiest game for either team," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin. "But our guys, like they've done all year, stayed with it. We expected a hard-fought game and we got it and now we are moving on."