The last of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference unbeatens is no more.

The University of Minnesota Duluth saw to that Friday night as it got goals from three different players and a rock-solid goaltending performance from Hunter Shepard en route to taking down top-ranked St. Cloud State University  3-1 at AMSOIL Arena. The No. 5 Bulldogs also held the Huskies scoreless on all five of their power play opportunities while  improving to 12-5-2 overall and 5-3-1-0 in NCHC play. St. Cloud State, under the direction of rookie head coach Brett Larson (who was an assistant with the 2017-18 NCAA champion Bulldogs) is now 14-3-2 overall and 6-1-2-1 in league games.

Sophomore right winger Nick Swaney gave put UMD up 1-0 midway through the first period when he took a pass from senior center Peter Krieger in the low slot and buried his sixth goal of the season on just the second UMD shot of the night. Robby Jackson drew the Huskies even with 3:20 to go in the second period before UMD iced the win with unassisted goals in the third from both freshman left winger Noah Cates (at the 9:52 mark) and sophomore center Justin Richards (at 18:22).

Shepard, making his 58th consecutive start, was credited with 30 saves, including 25 stops in the opening two periods when UMD was outshot 26-10. Five of his saves came while St. Cloud State had the man advantage which helped UMD extend its streak of consecutive penalty kills to 33 (encompassing eight games). The Bulldogs put a season-low 18 shots on target after coming into the night averaging 36.06 shots per outing, the fourth highest total in the country. On the flip side, UMD blocked a season-best 22 shots.

"I really liked our first two goals -- they were hard-working goals off the forecheck," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin.  "I thought our guys did a pretty good job in the defensive zone, especially on the penalty kill, but our best player tonight was our goalie."

The two intrastate rivals will meet again on Saturday night at 7:07 p.m.