The No. 4 University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team, led by the natural hat trick of the NCAA's top scorer Max Plante, skated past Colorado College Friday night 4-2 inside the Ed Robson Arena in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The Bulldogs leaned heavily on its special teams units and they delivered, going 2-of-4 on the power play and keeping the Tigers scoreless in four extra skater attempts.

But it was the Tigers that got on the board first 10:16 into the first period. Graduate center Kyler Kovich equalized less than three minutes later, slipping in a rebound for his first goal as a Bulldog.

CC struck again at the 16:40 mark off a goal from Connor Hvidston, and UMD trailed 2-1 at the first intermission.

The Bulldogs would never trail again thanks to the NCAA's leading scorer, and at 8:32 of the second period, Plante scored the first of his three tallies on the power play after skating in between the circles and unloading a nasty wrist shot.

Plante struck once more 5:40 into the third with a low power play rotation that included his brother Zam Plante, and this time, Plante's wrist shot scored from the opposite circle for the eventual game-winner and game's first UMD lead.

With an empty net and 32 seconds left in regulation, Plante buried his third goal of the game for his first collegiate hat trick in natural hat trick style, carrying the puck to the red line before sailing it home for his third of the game and nation-best 13th tally of the year.

UMD outshot the Tigers 30-20 overall and got 18 saves from sophomore goaltender Adam Gajan, who picked up his 12th win of the season to keep him tied for the most in the NCAA. Kaidan Mbereko had 26 stops for CC, who falls to .500 on the season at 6-6-1 and 1-5-1 in National College Hockey Conference play.

The Bulldogs (12-3-0, 5-2-0) will go for the series sweep tomorrow night. Puck drop is set for 7:07 p.m. CST.

BULLDOG NOTES: Max Plante's hat trick was the second in just a week for the Bulldogs … Plante follows Ty Hanson's hat trick last Friday night against Omaha at AMSOIL Arena … UMD now has two of the three hat tricks scored in the NCHC this season … Plante is just two points shy of his rookie point total of 28  … last season, Plante had 28 points in just 23 points (9g, 19a) … this season, Plante leads the NCAA with 23 points on 13 goals and 10 assists in 15 games … Plante's 1.73 ppg average also leads the country, as well as his 13 goals.