In a hockey battle of #1 vs #2, it was 2nd ranked Minnesota Duluth that came out on top of the #1 UND Fighting Hawks on Friday night, by a final of 5-2.

The last team to defeat North Dakota in the 2015-2016 season was the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs, and this year, the Bulldogs are the first. Led by a hat trick and an assist from senior left-winger Alex Iaffalo, UMD gave the Fighting Hawks all they could handle and then some.

UMD broke out to a 3-0 lead before the Fighting Hawks could come up with any offense. They did so in a two-minute span in the second period with goals from sophomores Rhett Gardner and Shane Gersich. But UMD's Neal Pionk scored to make it 4-2 with 8:32 remaining in the final period, before an empty-netter in the last minute finished off the scoring.

In his fourth career start, Hunter Miska (3-0-0) made 24 saves for UMD. North Dakota's Cam Johnson made 33 saves in net for the Flying Hawks.

Minnesota-Duluth improves to 4-1-2 on the young season, while UND falls to 5-1-0.

The Fighting Hawks will play Minnesota-Duluth again tonight. That game will be televised on MidcoSN.

Source: NCAA Hockey

More From Hot 975