The No. 7 University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team was back to its stingy defensive ways Friday night at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn., picking up its second shutout of the season by blanking St. Cloud State University 4-0 in game one of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference series.

With the win, the Bulldogs move to 9-2 overall in the season and gave sophomore netminder Adam Gajan his second shutout of the season and third of his career.

"For the most part, I thought, you know, we were better defensively," said head coach Scott Sandelin. "We need to keep doing that, but I like their guys, their guys worked hard, the games are hard. There's sometimes not a lot of room, sometimes there are games where, as much as you want these clean plays, sometimes teams are good with their sticks. But I just liked how we stayed with the game and got the lead, and the second period was huge, because you know, the penalty killers did a good job, really good job, so that was key."

The Bulldogs tilted the ice in the first half, outshot the Huskies a whopping 13-5 and emerged from the frame up 1-0. That lead came off the d-pairing odd man rush of Adam Klebeber and Ty Hanson, and ended with Hanson delivering the puck back to Kleber in the circle for the one-timed short side goal at the 14:02 mark.

While Kleber's second goal in as many games got UMD on the board, Scout Truman's fifth of the season doubled the Bulldog lead just 2:52 into the second period. Truman finished off a wrap around the goaltender attempt by Grayden Siepmann, popping it in around an outstretched Patriks Berzins to make it a 2-0 game.

UMD's 2-0 lead survived three SCSU power plays in the second period, and the Bulldogs defense was locked down on the penalty kill, allowing just one shot on goal over those six minutes down a player.

Kept off the books for 50 minutes, UMD's top line found the back of the net twice in the third. The first came on the power play midway through the period when Max Plante drove the middle lane and dumped it down to his brother Zam Plante on the doorstep for the simple redirect and 3-0 lead at 11:08.

The Bulldogs final goal came from the redline with 49 seconds left in contest. Jayson Shaugabay shot the puck from the redline after Hanson pushed it over to him on the right board, Hanson's second assist of the game.

Gajan made 18 saves for the Bulldogs, who allowed less than 20 shots for a fifth time this season. Overall, UMD outshot the Huskies 29-18 and was 1-of-3 on its power play. Berzins made 25 saves for SCSU, who fell to 6-4 and 1-2 in NCHC play.

The Bulldogs now, 9-1-0 and 2-1, improve to 3-1 at AMSOIL. Game two of the series will get underway Saturday night at 6:07 p.m.
 

BULLDOG NOTES: The Bulldogs rank third in the NCAA with 41 goals so far this season … with an assist Friday night, Max Plante stayed atop of the NCAA scoring ranks with 20 points (9g, 11a) and inched closer to 50 career points with 48 (18g, 29a) … Adam Gajan's 1.68 goals against is now the sixth-lowest in the NCAA among goaltenders that have played in four or more games …  UMD held the Huskies power play, which entered the game second in the NCAA with a 39.5 success rate, scoreless in all three of its attempts … with two assists Friday, Ty Hanson is now the second-highest scoring defenseman in the nation with 13 points (3g, 10a) … Hanson is now just four points shy of his rookie season output of 14 points (4g, 10a) … Scout Truman's fifth goal of the season puts him halfway to his collegiate single-season high of 10 goals, a mark he reached as a junior last season at UMass-Lowell in 36 games.