The University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team heavily outshot No. 9 Western Michigan University, but it was the Broncos who landed the pucks in the back of the net Friday night at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn. The result was a frustrating 5-2 loss for the Bulldogs in National College Hockey Conference play, their third in five games in league action.

"It's frustrating, I feel like we gift teams games," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin after the game." "We didn't get good enough goaltending, we turned over the pucks and they ended up in the back of the net, and conversely we didn't bury our opportunities. We had four or five guys that weren't there. We aren't going to beat teams in our league with four or five passengers, it's not good enough."

After the Broncos were given a five minute major for slew footing just 3:44 into the opening frame, WMU intercepted a puck on its own blueline and struck for a breakaway shorthanded goal at the 3:59 mark. 

UMD answered just over under three minutes later on the same power play when rookie forward Max Plante – making his first appearance back in the line-up since the Bulldogs season opener back on Oct. 5 – found his brother Zam Plante on the back step to knot the skate at 1-1 at 6:18. 

Despite outshooting the Broncos – whose second shot of the game didn't come until 8:03 left in the first period – by a hefty 12-4, both teams were fit to be tied after the first 20 minutes.

WMU scored back-to-back at 2:39 and 9:48 of the second period to push ahead 3-1, and the Broncos added a power play tally at 17:30 to separate from the Bulldogs on the scoreboard heading into the final intermission. 

Spearheaded by UMD's gritty and netfront skating second line of the Plante brothers and Harper Bentz, the Bulldogs found the goal again 7:05 into the third period. Zam Plante scored his second of the night with a turning wicked wrister that beat Cameron Rowe's outstretched left skate to cut into the Broncos lead 5-2. But 24 seconds later, WMU struck again for its fifth goal of the night, effectively defusing any chance of a Bulldog comeback.

"I think if you look at it tonight, we had all the pieces to win that game," said Zam Plante. "We just had a couple falters and it ended up in our net, so if we can maintain that and bury on our chances, I mean Max probably set me up like three or four times that I didn't score. If we can get those to go in for us, we're right where we need to be."

In all, UMD outshot WMU 44-22 on the evening, including 23-5 in the final period. The Bulldogs were 1-of-5 on their power play, which spanned over 9:12 of time and generated 12 shots – the Broncos were 1-of-2 with four shots on theirs that lasted for a combined 6:40. UMD goaltender Adam Gajan had 16 saves in the loss – his counterpart in the Broncos net, Rowe, made 42 stops to help WMU improve to 7-1-1 overall and 4-0-1 in the NCHC.

UMD (5-7-0, 2-3-0) will attempt to rally for game two tomorrow, which has a slightly earlier start time at AMSOIL of 5:07 p.m. 

BULLDOG NOTES: UMD has had six players score two or more goals over its last seven games … along with Zam Plante Friday night, both Blake Bechen and Anthony Menghini compiled two against Miami University last Saturday, while Menghini had a hat trick back on Nov. 8 against the University of North Dakota and Dominic James added two against Stonehill College on both  Oct 27th and 28th … Friday was Zam Plante's first multiple goal game and third multiple point game of the season … Plante has now had two or more points over his last two games after dishing out three assists against the RedHawks last Saturday night … with an assist Friday night, sophomore defenseman Aaron Pionk now has 11 on the season … the one assist a game average has Pionk already more than half way through his mark of 17 last season as a freshman … Pionk has had a helper in three of his last four skates.