Beginning with last April's NCAA Frozen Four title bout, all five of matchups between the University of Minnesota Duluth and the University of Denver have been decided by one goal, and each of those five have gone in the Pioneers' favor.

The latest of those came on Saturday night at a sold-out Magness Arena, where the host Pioneers rallied for a 4-3 National Collegiate Hockey Conference triumph over the No. 9 Bulldogs. Denver center Dylan Gambrell broke a 3-3 tie by punching in a puck with 9:09 remaining in regulation to complete the series sweep of UMD and remain atop of the NCHC standings. 

After giving up just their third shorthanded goal in the last 95 games early in the first period, the Bulldogs took their first lead of the weekend with even-strength goals from rookie defenseman and team scoring leader Scott Perunovich at 10:26 of the first and freshman left winger Kobey Roth eight minutes later. The No. 4 Pioneers, 1-0 winners on Friday night, drew even at 4:53 of the next period only to have sophomore left winger Riley Tufte put the Bulldogs back on top at 3-2 midway through the second with his team-high 13th goal of the season. That lead lasted a little over eight minutes until Jarid Lukosevicius potted the equalizer.

The Bulldog penalty kill unit continued to shine as it kept the Pioneers off the board on all four of their power play opportunities. That extended UMD's streak of consecutive penalty kills to 30 stretching back seven games. The Bulldogs, who allowed a 2017-18 season-high 44 shots, went 0-for-3 with the man advantage and are 0-for-11 over the past five games.

Sophomore goaltender Hunter Shepard, making his 25 straight start, made 40 saves for the Bulldogs, who fall to 14-13-3 overall and 8-10-0-0 in the NCHC.

The Bulldogs are idle next weekend and will return to the ice on Feb. 17-18 for a pair of NCHC home clashes against Miami University.