The scoring is coming in waves so far this season for the University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team, and Friday night at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn. was no different. The Bulldogs swamped Augustana University with four second period goals to cruise to a 4-1 win over the Vikings in game one of the series.

"I guess it was kind of a sluggish first period, you know, but we got to our game towards the end of the first period a little bit, and I think we carried that over in the second and that was the difference," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin. ?"Adam, I thought, was real key again, making some key saves in that first period to keep the thing scoreless. Our second line gave us some really good shifts when we needed them, and it was nice to see Scout score. An ugly goal, sure, but a goal, putting the puck on net. I was glad to see Cal score, it was a really, really good shot. Nice to see a power play goal. Hopefully that continues because we're going to need it out of everybody, but certainly those guys. So that was good for them, most of all to give them a little bit of a boost."

That boost was an offensive explosion in the second period after the two sides played to a scoreless first frame. Scout Truman lit the fire with a shot point blank in the slot that skipped up and over Augustana goaltender Josh Kobal 5:28 into the period. Just over a minute and a half later, UMD doubled up on the Vikings, this time with a wrister through traffic by sophomore defenseman Ty Hanson to push the Bulldogs ahead 2-0. 

But UMD wasn't done, and it finally netted its first power play goal of the year after a 1-2 play between Callum Arnott and Grayden Siepmann that Arnott finished out with a one-time snipe from the left circle at the 9:28 mark.

Max and Zam Plante tacked one on later in the period when Zam Plante found his brother from the circle for the one-time goal to round out the Bulldogs four-goal scoring spree at 17:59.

The Vikings did finally manage to get on the board with a power play tally with less than five minutes left in the game to deny UMD goaltender Adam Gajan a shutout – Gajan had 16 saves in the game including four that came off Augustana power plays. 

The Bulldogs outshot the Vikings 37-17 and each team was 1-of-3 with an extra skater. Kotal had 33 for Augustana, who falls to 0-1-0 in its season opener.

The Bulldogs (3-0-0) will look to extend its current winning streak to four games tomorrow night in a rematch with the Vikings at AMSOIL. The puck is scheduled to drop at 6:07 p.m.

BULLDOG NOTES: UMD is off to its first 3-0 start since the 2020-21 bubble season in Omaha … the Bulldogs are averaging a blistering 4.3 goals a game right now while allowing just one a game … Max Plante extended his scoring streak to five games dating back to UMD's NCHC postseason series with Arizona State University last March … while Plante has three goals and three assists for six points (a 2.00 points per game average) so far this season, he also compiled two goals and three assists against the Sun Devils and now has a five-goal, three assists for eight point four game scoring streak still intact … both Jayson Shaugabay and Zam Plante have also logged points in all three games so far this season … Shaugabay has five points (1g, 4a), while Zam Plante has four points (1g, 3a) … UMD is now 1-of-13 on its power play, but it also has held opponents to one goal in 12 attempts (that one goal was Augustana Friday night).