The Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs dropped game one of the NCHC quarterfinal 3-1 against the St. Cloud State Huskies. The Bulldogs are now 15-19-1 overall. 

Scoring the lone goal in tonight's game was Dominic James with assists from Ben Steeves and Wyatt Kaiser. Zach Stejskal made 23 saves in game one and the Bulldogs went a perfect 3-3 on the penalty kill. 

At the start of period one, the Huskies got an early lead over the Bulldogs. UMD was called for roughing, but killed off the penalty. Despite the one goal deficit, UMD led shots on goal 10-7 at the end of the first. 

The Bulldogs went into the second period score less but down only one goal. UMD took a penalty only 51 seconds into the period. The penalty kill unit made a strong effort and held St. Cloud off once again. The Bulldogs drew a holding penalty with 8:47 remaining in the period. A minute into the power play, Steeves connected with Kaiser, and he passed the puck to James on the blue line. James fired a shot in the face-off circle past Basse and tied the game up 1-1. SCSU responded back at the end of the period with their second goal to close the period 2-1.  

In the third period, the Bulldogs saw their second and final power play opportunity of the game. The Bulldogs tried to find something with the man-advantage but couldn't find the back of the net. At 1:29 Stejskal was pulled from the net to add an extra attacker. While on his way back to the bench, the Huskies found the empty net at 1:27. UMD pulled Stejskal again for the remaining time, but the final decision was 3-1 in the Huskies favor. 

UP NEXT The Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs will be back tomorrow at 6:07 p.m. for game two against St. Cloud. UMD will look to take the win and force a game three to advance in the playoffs.