The early season productive offense of the University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team ran into a hot goaltender Saturday night at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn. and the result was a 4-0 shutout of the Bulldogs by Augustana University.

UMD put a whopping 40 shots on Josh Kotai, including 16 in the second period and 15 in the third, but the Viking's goaltender never broke against a Bulldog team that is still averaging 3.30 goals a game through its first four games of the season.

"I thought we came out almost better than last night," said sophomore winger Max Plante. "We just took too many penalties and on our opportunities, we didn't capitalize on them. We got to get the power play going, that's how you start winning games in college hockey. ?I think it's getting better, we just haven't been scoring. And then, yeah, a couple plays that we can't let happen and we let them score. We just couldn't score tonight."

Augustana got on the board midway through the first period on Hunter Bischoff's first of two goals in the contest. The Vikings made it a 2-0 game after capitalizing on a shorthanded scoring attempt by UMD that resulted in a 3-on-1 odd man rush with less than 30 seconds left in the second period.

That score would hold until the Bulldogs pulled goaltender Adam Gajan at 16:21 of the third period. The Vikings scored from behind their own blueline to make it a 3-0 game at 16:58 before getting one more less than a minute later to stretch their lead to 4-0.

Five players had four or more shots in the game, including sophomore forward Jayson Shaugabay, who had six and sophomore forwards Max and Zam Plante who each had five. The Bulldogs outshot Augustana overall 40-16, holding the Vikings to a season-tying low shots on goal allowed. UMD was scoreless in its two power play attempts, while the Vikings (1-1-0)  went 1-of-5 with the extra skater.

Gajan made 12 saves in his fourth-straight start of the season.

"We gave up 16 shots, I mean, we haven't given up over 25 shots in one game yet," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin. "So, defensively, you know, we're doing some good things. ?Offensively, still a work in progress. The power play would help, trying to get some goals there, but like I said, we got a lot of guys that are playing college hockey for the first time and I thought some of those guys, as a group, I think there's a lot of good things to build off of. I mean, again, is this the finished product? ?No. It's the fourth game of the year.?I want to win, and kids who want to win. We have to have a good week of practice and we will be ready to play next Friday."

The Bulldogs (3-1-0) will have a home-and-home series with Bemidji State University next weekend, traveling to Bemidji, Minn. Friday night for a 7:07 p.m. game before returning to AMSOIL to face the Beavers at 6:07 p.m. Saturday night.