Until Saturday night, drawing first blood meant drawing a win for the University of Minnesota Duluth this season.

The Bulldogs, who were a perfect 11-0-0 when they scored first in 2018-19, jumped out to a 2-0 first-period lead only to see St. Cloud State University strike for four unanswered goals and best its National Collegiate Hockey Conference rival 4-2 before a near-sellout crowd of 6,647 at AMSOIL Arena. 

UMD, which prevailed 3-1 over the Huskies in Friday's series opener, needed just 3:13 to get on the board when junior left winger Riley Tufte -- on the Bulldogs' second shot of the game -- beat St. Cloud State goaltender David Hrenak with a hard wrister from the left edge of the right faceoff circle. Junior center Justin Richards doubled the UMD advantage 10 minutes later by rapping in a rebound (off sophomore defenseman Dylan Samberg's shot) for his seventh goal of the season. With 2:09 to go in the first, St. Cloud State answered that power play tally with a man advantage score of its own (the first by a Bulldog opponent in nine games, ending a streak of 33 consecutive penalty kills). Jimmy Schuldt capitalized on a UMD turnover at 18:40 of the first to knot the game at 2-2 before the No. 1 Huskies would add a goal in each of the ensuing two periods.

The No. 5 Bulldogs outshot St. Cloud State 32-22, including 11-4 in the final 20 minutes of play. Hrenak finished with 30 saves while his UMD counterpart, junior Hunter Shepard was credited with 18 stops.

"We started getting caught, which gave them some odd man rushes and they got some momentum off that later in the first period," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin. "They got those two late goals -- one off a turnover -- and that changed the game."