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There's something about St. Cloud State that seems to bring out the best in Karson Kuhlman.

The University of Minnesota Duluth senior right winger and team captain has racked up 33 goals as a collegian and seven -- or just a shade north of 21 percent -- have come at the expense of St. Cloud State University. The latest two of those came Friday night at AMSOIL Arena where Kuhlman and the No. 9 Bulldogs opened up their National Collegiate Hockey Conference series with a 5-1 triumph over the No. 5 Huskies.

UMD, which has now won a program-best seven straight NCHC games, used even-strength goals from Kuhlman, junior center Peter Krieger and sophomore right winger Joey Anderson to take  a 3-0 lead into the first intermission -- despite putting just seven shots on net. Junior right winger Parker Mackay and Kuhlman both scored shorthanded 2:30 apart in the latter stages of the second period to ice the victory. Ryan Poehling spoiled what would have been sophomore goaltender Hunter Shepard's fourth career shutout with a goal midway through the third period. Shepard, who was 0-2-0 lifetime against the Huskies coming into the night, finished with 24 saves, including 12 in the final period. St. Cloud State's David Hrenak faced only 18 shots the entire evening.

The Bulldogs, who are unbeaten in eight of their last nine games (7-1-1), improved to 14-10-3 overall and 8-7-0-0 in the NCHC.

"I thought the penalty kill did a good job," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin.  "It was nice to get a couple of shorties. We won the special teams game because we didn't get many power play opportunities (the Bulldogs were 0-for-2 with the man advantage). Overall, I thought our guys came ready to play tonight."

The two teams will meet again Saturday night at 7:07 p.m. in Duluth.