While the early effort was far better for the University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team Saturday night against the No. 6 University of Minnesota, the result was unfortunately the same at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn.

The Bulldogs suffered a 5-1 loss to the Gophers that included a late empty netter, and gave up a non conference series sweep to Minnesota in the process – its first over a UMD side since the 2011-12 season. 

"Better start, but again, their first goal, turnover, second goal, turnover, they're magnified now because they're ending up in the back of our net," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin. "That's not a team you can give those up against and we did that a lot this weekend. But we had some opportunities to climb back in it, it's just some of the decisions we're making and soft decisions, we just can't make them. Give them credit, they track, their sticks are good, but we have to make harder plays and better decisions because right now that's costing us goals against."

The Bulldogs improved their defense in the opening period from Friday night, but the Gophers were still able to get on the board at the 9:24 and 17:23 marks to go up 2-0. 

But after what appeared like a quick whistle with less than eight seconds left in the frame called off a potential UMD goal, the Bulldogs struck off the ensuing face-off. Rookie forward Zam Plante passed the puck out the face-off tangle to Joey Pierce at the left point. Pierce found senior blueliner Owen Gallatin on the right point, and Gallatin's blast past Gopher netminder Liam Souliere pulled UMD within a single goal with four seconds left before the first intermission.

The lone scoring of the second period belonged to Minnesota's Jimmy Snuggerud at 9:12, and after 40 minutes, the Bulldogs trailed the Gophers 3-1.

UMD had back-to-back power plays early in the third frame (4:00 and 6:41 minute marks), but were unable to connect, and Minnesota extended their goal total to four on its own power play at 13:37. UMD pulled freshman netminder Adam Gajan for an extra skater shortly after that, but the Gophers suffocated that 6-on-5 attack with an empty net goal to run the final score to 5-1 with just over four minutes in regulation.

Gajan had 29 saves in his fourth-straight start for the Bulldogs, and the Gophers had a slight edge in shots on goal 34-32. UMD went 0-of-5 on its power play, while Minnesota – who improved to 3-1-0 on the season, went 1-of-3.

"There's a lot to learn, and I think the biggest thing for us right now is that we aren't applying the stuff coach has us doing in practice to our games," said Gallatin. "It's frustrating seeing guys working in practice, trying to get better and then it comes to game time and it goes out the window. I think collectively as a group, that's something we can get better at moving forward, that's how we are going to see improvement."

UMD (1-4-0) in non conference play on the season will continue its current home stand next weekend when it plays Stonehill College for the first time in program history. The puck is scheduled to drop Friday night at 7:07 p.m., followed by a 6:07 p.m. start on Saturday.

BULLDOG NOTES: While the Bulldogs are winless in their last four games against the Gophers dating back to last season 0-3-1, they are 4-4-2 over their last 10 head-to-heads.