The University of Minnesota Duluth and the University of North Dakota are the top two stingiest clubs in the country when it comes to giving up shots and that was certainly evident on Saturday night

The two long-time rivals combined to put just 33 shots on target in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference series finale at Ralph Engelstad Arena, where the visiting Bulldogs skated away with a bounce-back 3-2 triumph.

UMD, which leads all NCAA I schools in fewest shots allowed (22.60 per night), got a pair of 5-on-3 power play goals from senior center Peter Krieger to avenge Friday's 4-1 setback to the Fighting Hawks and improve to 19-9-2 overall and 12-7-1 in the NCHC. Junior center and Minto, N.D., native Jade Miller also scored for the No. 3 Bulldogs, who generated only17 shots on the night -- their lowest output in over a year (15 at Minnesota State University on Jan. 23, 2018).

Krieger opened the scoring at 3:05 of the first period on a shot from the high slot that whistled in under the cross bar, but North Dakota's Colton Poolman answered with a power play tally of his own five minutes later. That was the first time in six games a UMD opponent scored with the man advantage and just the fourth power play goal the Bulldogs had surrendered in the last 19 outings. Miller tipped in a shot from junior defenseman Nick Wolff 2:29 into the second period to put the Bulldogs on top for good before Krieger potted his sixth goal of the season at the 6:14 mark of that same period. Gavin Hain closed out the night's scoring with a goal with 2:01 to go before the second intermission.

UMD goaltender Hunter Shepard,  who was making his 69th consecutive start, and his North Dakota counterpart, Peter Thome, both finished with 14 saves.

"Our compete level was good, and our energy level was better." said head coach Scott Sandelin, whose Bulldogs have now won 10 of their last 13 engagements with North Dakota.  "We had a good start and obviously it was nice to get that first goal. Our power play came through -- especially on the 5-on-3's.  You have to score goals in those situations and we did that."

Th Bulldogs will return to AMSOIL Arena next Friday and Saturday (March 1-2) to host Miami University in their 2018-19 regular season home finales. UMD blanked the RedHawks twice earlier this year in Oxford, Ohio (4-0 and 3-0 on Jan. 18-19).