In a final tuneup before it resumes National Collegiate Hockey Conference warfare next weekend, the University of Minnesota Duluth suffered a 4-2 exhibition loss at the hands of the U.S. National Under-18 Team Saturday night at AMSOIL Arena.

Cole Caulfield scored twice for the Under-18s, which never trailed in the game and outshot the Bulldogs 39-28. Michael Gildon and Caufield both struck on the power play to give their club a 2-0 lead before freshman right winger Tanner Laderoute got UMD on the board on a wrister from high above the left faceoff circle at 8:08 of the second period.  The Under-18s then added two more scores in the opening six minutes of the third period to go up 4-1 and held that advantage until 5:02 remained in regulation when sophomore center Justin Richards took a feed from rookie defenseman Hunter Helling and slipped a forehand shot past goaltender Cameron Rowe.

UMD sophomore netminder Hunter Shepard made 27 saves in two periods of work while junior teammate Nick Deery registered eight stops in the final 20 minutes of play.

"I thought their guys played above our guys," said UMD Associate Head Coach Jason Herter. "We got sucked into playing too deep and we talked all week about having a responsible F3 (third forward). I thought we cheated a bit tonight thinking it would be an easy night."

The Bulldogs are now 19-4-0 in exhibition games since the 2000-01 season and  three of those setbacks have been inflicted by the U.S. Under-18s (including 2-1 decisions on Dec. 14, 2007 and on Oct. 22, 2018 in Duluth).   UMD is  5-3-0 all-time against the U-18s and have outscored them by a combined 28-15.

The Bulldogs will remain at home to host NCHC frontrunner St. Cloud State University next Friday and Saturday night.