DULUTH, Minn. – Third-ranked North Dakota scored four times in the third period enroute to a 4-1 victory over No. 10 Minnesota Duluth on Saturday night at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn.
 
The win keeps UND (21-7-0, 13-5-0 NCHC) in the top spot of the league standings with six games remaining in the regular season while also securing home ice for the Frozen Faceoff Quarterfinals. NoDak also guaranteed that it can finish no lower than third place in the league standings.
 
The Fighting Hawks also continued their dominance over Minnesota Duluth (18-12-0, 9-11-0 NCHC), notching their 14th victory in the last 17 meetings while also extending their point streak to 12 straight games against the Bulldogs.
 
Junior defenseman Abram Wiebe led the way offensively with a trio of assists for his first three-point game of his career in the win. Three others notched multiple points for the Hawks, with Dylan James (2G), Mac Swanson (1G, 1A) and Will Zellers (1G, 1A) each tallying a pair of points.
 
Freshman netminder Jan Špunar notched his 14th win of the season in his 17th start and finished with 25 saves on 26 shots against. The rookie was busy over the opening 20 minutes, stopping all 16 shots fired his way while having to make only nine over the final two periods.
 
Special teams once again dominated the first period, with UND having to kill off a trio of penalties for the second straight night. This time, however, the Fighting Hawks were forced to kill a 5-on-3 power play for over 90 seconds and were able to survive the nation's second-ranked power play to escape the period still scoreless.
 
UND started to take control of the game when playing at 5-on-5 and finally looked to have taken its first lead of the weekend when Jayden Jubenvill buried his first of the season on a sweet move, but Minnesota Duluth successfully challenged the play for offside to keep the game scoreless.
 
NoDak had plenty of other chances in the middle frame, including a crossbar from Zellers, but the Bulldogs survived a heavy push from the visitors to send the contest to the third still deadlocked at 0-0.
 
The moment finally came for the visitors early in the third period, when Andrew Strathmann was boarded from behind and gave the Fighting Hawks a major power play. UND made the Bulldogs pay on the man advantage, as Zellers found Swanson with a backdoor feed to officially break the ice and give UND a 1-0 lead.
 
Moments later, UND struck again on the major power play when Zellers fired a shot through the legs of the Minnesota Duluth netminder to quickly double the advantage to 2-0 with just over halfway to play in the third.
 
After the Bulldogs trimmed the deficit to 2-1, James restored the two-goal cushion just over two minutes later when the senior received an alley-oop pass from Wiebe and raced past everyone before wiring a shot over the netminder's glove to make it 3-1 NoDak.
 
James struck again with the goaltender pulled for his 17th goal of the season and second of the night to secure the 4-1 victory for the Hawks.
 
North Dakota returns home for a series against Miami beginning on Friday night at 7:07 p.m. (CT) on Midco Sports, NCHC.tv and the Fighting Hawks Radio Network.
 
Postgame Notes 

• UND improves to 163-93-11 all-time against Minnesota Duluth and 70-47-6 in Duluth
• North Dakota has now earned points in 12 straight games against Minnesota Duluth
• The Hawks also secured home ice for the Frozen Faceoff Quarterfinals
• Abram Wiebe dished out three assists for a career-high three points
• Mac Swanson extended his point streak to four games with a pair of points
• Swanson also has nine points (3G, 6A) in eight career games against UMD
• Will Zellers also had two points (1G, 1A)
• Dylan James scored a pair of goals to give him nine goals and 12 points in his last nine games
• UND now has a plus-31 goal differential in the third period this season (47-16)
• Saturday was the ninth time this season that UND has scored at least three goals in the third
• Ben Strinden recorded an assist to give him points in five straight games (1G, 5A)
• Jan Špunar finished with 25 saves on 26 shots against to improve to 14-3-0 this season
• UND went 2-for-5 on the power play while UMD was 0-for-4
• NoDak finished 8-for-9 on the penalty kill this weekend
• The Hawks are 6-4-0 this season against ranked teams
• UND improves to 8-0-0 this season when scoring multiple power play goals
• The Hawks have won 13 games this season by at least three goals
• UND wore its black jerseys and improved to 6-1-0 this season
• Cole Reschny exited the game in the second period and did not return
• Shots were 28-26 in favor of UND
• Faceoffs were 34-22 in favor of UND, with Ellis Rickwood leading everyone at 11-6

How It Happened 

First Period:                                                     
No scoring

Second Period: 
No scoring

Third Period:
04:49 | UND – Mac Swanson (5, PP) from Will Zellers (9) and Abram Wiebe (14)
07:35 | UND – Zellers (14, PP) from Wiebe (15) and Swanson (15)
12:02 | UMD – Zam Plante (14) from Max Plante (21) and Aaron Pionk (8)
14:44 | UND – Dylan James (16) from Wiebe (16)
17:06 | UND – James (17, EN) from Ben Strinden (17)

For more information on North Dakota hockey, visit FightingHawks.com or follow on social media @UNDmhockey.