In a game that could have tilted either way until the end, the No. 10 University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team had to settle for a series split with the No. 3 University of North Dakota after the Fighting Hawks held on for a 3-1 win at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn. Saturday night.

The Bulldogs, who knocked off North Dakota Friday night in a 3-2 overtime win, went skate-to-skate with the Fighting Hawks until a five minute major penalty for boarding at 3:37 led to two UND goals.

"We had chances, we had chances," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin. " It was zero going into the third, and we shot ourselves in the foot by taking a bad penalty. We don't need to talk about much more. We battled, it was two good teams going at it. ?They made us pay for taking a bad penalty. It's that simple."

The Bulldogs outshot UND 16-10 in the first period, helped by three power plays in the first 10:12 of action, but UMD couldn't get on the scoreboard in the first frame. A little over three minutes into the second period, the Fighting Hawks thought they had broken through for a 1-0 lead, but the Bulldogs challenged the goal was offsides, and after an official review, the challenge stood -- and the UND goal no longer remained.

Through 40 minutes of play and a 8-3 UND shots on goal advantage in the second stanza, the game was still knotted up at 0-0. But the momentum shifted towards the Fighting Hawks 3:37 into the third when Kyler Kovich was called for a five minute boarding major, and UND made the Bulldogs pay on special teams. Mac Swanson scored 1:12 later and then Will Zellers doubled that lead for the Fighting Hawks at the 7:35 for a 2-0 lead.

UMD clawed back on the board less than five minutes later when Max Plante's one-time blast from the point deflected off his brother Zam Plante for Zam's third goal of the weekend. The Plante's brothers tally pulled the Bulldogs within a single goal with 7:58 left in the third, still plenty of time for UMD to extend its late rally attempt.

But North Dakota put the damper on those Bulldog efforts to equalize with the first of Dylan James late two goals, with one at 14:44, and then an empty netter at 17:06 to put the game out of reach for UMD.

"I think we have the group of guys, we're never going to quit," said Max Plante. "We're never going to back down. It just sucks sometimes when those games, when you're in it all night. ?It's happening a lot lately, I mean, you got to find a way to get out of it. I mean, we're close, we're just not there yet."

Sophomore goaltender Ethan Dahlmeir had 24 saves in the game, his second most stops of the season. North Dakota, who barely outshot UMD 28-26, held the Bulldogs scoreless in four power play attempts while going 2-of-5, and dominated UMD in the faceoff dot 34-22.

"I think that's playoff hockey, that's how tight it's going to be," said captain Joey Pierce. "That's how small one little shift or decision is going to be. ?And I think that's something that we need to learn from and think about, everyone has to realize every decision they're making matters. And I think we do that at times, but we got to be able to do it all the time."

UMD (18-12-0, 9-11-0) will have a week off from outside competition before heading to Miami University (Ohio) in Oxford, Ohio on Feb. 20-21.