KALAMAZOO, Mich.--  Western Michigan avenged a 5-1 defeat a night earlier, salvaging a split Saturday evening with a 4-2 victory over North Dakota at Lawson Arena in National Collegiate Hockey Conference play. 

The specialty teams were the story as Western Michigan (17-10-1, 10-7-1-1 NCHC) potted a pair of power play goals and North Dakota (14-13-2, 8-9-1) was held scoreless on its first four chances with the man advantage.

"Not good enough on the power play," UND head coach Brad Berry said succinctly. "We only got one of seven and if you're not scoring, you have to at least get something going and get momentum and we didn't even get that. Execution is the big thing. This time of year, you have to check every box, you can't be deficient in any one area."

WMU's first goal came when Michael Joyaux got one past Adam Scheel at the 7:00 mark of the second. Scheel had made several big saves to that point to keep it scoreless. Joyaux would strike again with the man advantage just over two minutes later, tapping home a Josh Passolt point shot at 9:19 for a 2-0 Bronco lead. 

Passolt made it 3-0 at 4:23 of the third as the home team seized control. UND didn't fold up shop, though, as the Fighting Hawks go ton the board at 10:19 on a wild scramble in front. Gavin Hain was credited with the goal with assists to Cole Smith and Matt Kiersted. Smith blasted a shot from the right circle that bounced in front where Hain was able to shove it home despite being pushed from behind and off his skates n

At the end of the play, WMU goalie Trevor Gorsuch was assessed a 2-minute minor for unsportsmanlike conduct putting UND on the power play right away. 

The Hawks would cash it in this time as Jordan Kawaguchi sniped one past Gorsuch to close the deficit to just one with 7:42 left in the third. 

WMU scored a short-handed tally with 3:09 remaining, getting out on a breakaway and a pileup on top of Scheel kept him down for several minutes. He would be helped off the ice and to the locker room, making way for senior Ryan Anderson's first career regular season minutes. 

"We'll go back and see what his condition is here and we'll go from there," Berry said of Scheel's status moving forward. "We've got other good goaltenders here that will have to step up if he's not the guy in the net here in the next bit."

Anderson stopped the only shot on goal his way but WMU was able to take the season series, 3-1, with the victory. 

North Dakota will host fourth-ranked Minnesota Duluth next Friday and Saturday at Ralph Engelstad Arena. 

Notes:
*North Dakota allowed its first PPGs since Jan. 25 vs St. Cloud State (snapped string of 18 straight kills).
*Ryan Anderson logged 2:07 of time in the UND net, stopping his only shot faced.
*UND slipped to fifth place in the NCHC standings, three points shy of Denver
*Kawaguchi now is tied for the team lead in goals (8).