The third period is where the University of Minnesota Duluth has inflicted a majority of its offensive damage in 2019-20 and that certainly was the case Friday night at AMSOIL Arena.

After going into the second intermission deadlocked at 3-3 with Western Michigan University, the No. 9 Bulldogs erupted for three unanswered goals in the final 20 minutes of regulation to doubleup on the Broncos and push their winning streak to five games. UMD, which never trailed the entire evening, is now 12-6-1 overall and 7-1-1-0 in the NCHC.

"The most important thing is it's a three-period game and it was basically 0-0 going into th third," said UMD Head Coach Scott Sandelin.  "We just said "Hey, let's win a period' and our guys found a way to do that."

Junior right winger Nick Swaney potted the final two UMD goals --  picking up his third collegiate shorthanded tally at the 7:21 mark before adding an empty netter with 40.1 to go -- and also was credited with one assist to equal a career single-game game best for points.  Sophomore right winger Tanner Laderoute, sophomore left winger Noah Cates (his team-leading 11th of the year) and junior left winger Kobe Roth also scored for the Bulldogs, who have now generated 48.4 percent of their total goals in the third period this season (the second highest figure in the country).

Senior All-American goaltender Hunter Shepard, making his 100th consecutive start, finished with 35 saves (his most since last March) while Western Michigan's Brandon Bussi and Ben Blocker, who came in midway through the third period, combined for 33 stops.

The two teams will meet again on Saturday at 7:07 p.m. in Duluth.