DULUTH, Minn. – No Nick Jones. No Joel Janatuinen. No Collin Adams. And, for the final two periods, no Jordan Kawaguchi.
 
No problem.
 
Kawaguchi scored a goal and set up another by Grant Mismash before being ejected late in the first period for spearing, and Adam Scheel stopped 28 of 29 shots to lift North Dakota to a 2-1 win over Minnesota Duluth on Saturday night.
 
The win snapped North Dakota's (8-6-1, 2-4-0 NCHC) three-game National Collegiate Hockey Conference losing streak and was UND's first victory in its last six visits to AMSOIL Arena.
 
One night after being blanked by the Bulldogs, North Dakota generated offense early on when Kawaguchi carried the puck through the neutral zone, beat a UMD defender one-on-one and slipped the puck past Bulldog netminder Hunter Shepard.
 
Less than two minutes later, Kawaguchi caused a turnover deep in the offensive zone and centered to Mismash on the doorstep for a tap-in.
 
That was all the offense the Fighting Hawks would need. Minnesota Duluth's Tanner Laderoute got the Bulldogs on the board midway through the frame, but Scheel and the Hawks slammed the door the rest of the way, including a successful kill of Kawaguchi's spearing major that came with a game misconduct.
 
"The biggest thing we talked about (after the first period) was picking up a teammate," said UND head coach Brad Berry. "Can't worry about the past now but what are you going to do as a teammate to pick him up and kill off the 5 minute major? And I thought our guys responded by picking up a teammate and killing the 5 off."
 
Continued Berry: "We found a way to play a 60-minute game with a little bit of adversity thrown in there tonight. Jordan Kawaguchi and Rhett Gardner and Mismash had a good start to the game and got us off to a lead. Yesterday we had a 5-minute major that we had to try to kill off and didn't handle it very well. Today we handled it."
 
Already playing without the services of key forwards Jones (lower-body injury), Janatuinen (illness) and Adams (lower-body injury), Berry and his staff had to mix and match line combinations throughout the night, particularly on special teams where UND went 0-7 on the power play.
 
But Scheel and teammates made sure those empty opportunities did not come back to haunt. The freshman made 17 of his 28 saves over the final two periods and lowered his goals against average to 1.98, the lowest in the nation among freshmen.
 
"That's an ugly, ugly road win and we couldn't be more excited about it," said senior center Rhett Gardner, who took 38 of UND's 57 faceoffs and won half of them. "We had a pretty depleted lineup there and we came together and I think this is going to be a good momentum shift for us."
 
UND captain Colton Poolman, who was a plus-2 on the night, said the fast start after last night's blowout loss, was critical.
 
"That was huge, especially after what we've been through the last couple weeks. It's been pretty roller coast and we wanted to even out our consistency," said Poolman. "As cheesy as it sounds, it's that next-guy-up mentality. Guys were playing a lot of different positions, a lot of new faces on the power play, on the penalty kill. Guys really stepped up tonight."
 
He continued: "I'm happy with the way we played. We didn't have our Grade-A game, I think, but we brought the A-plus effort."
 
UND will close out the first half of the season next weekend at home against Denver.
 
Notes: Scheel, UMD's Hunter Shepard (28 saves) and Mismash were named the game's three stars … Attendance was 6,880 … Both teams blocked 12 shots … UND won the faceoff battle 30-27.