On a night when power play opportunities seemed boundless, it was only fitting that the outcome was ultimately decided by a man advantage goal.

University of Minnesota Duluth rookie right winger Joey Anderson did the honors, scoring on a 5-on-3 power play with 51 seconds remaining in regulation to lift the Bulldogs to a wild 4-3 victory over the University of North Dakota in the title game of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference Frozen Faceoff. It was one of five power play goals the two longtime rivals combined on in front of a crowd of 10,297 at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn.

The conference playoff championship was the fourth ever for the Bulldogs, with the last coming in 2009 while UMD was a member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.

No. 3 UMD (25-6-7 overall) survived what could have been a disastrous opening 20 minutes as it headed into the first intermission down only 1-0 despite killing off penalties for almost half (9:52) of the period. No. 11 North Dakota (21-15-3), which converted one of its four man advantage chances during that period, outshot the Bulldogs 16-4, but some standout defensive work (16 blocked shots) and key stops by UMD freshman netminder Hunter Miska kept the damage to a minimum.

Reenergized, the Bulldogs struck for three goals within 58 seconds early in the second period held a 9-0 shots advantage through the first six minutes.  Senior center Dominic Toninato, who scored once in UMD's 5-2 takedown of Western MIchigan in Friday's semifinals, started the flurry by banging in Anderson's rebound at the 1:30 mark before rookie left winger Riley Tufte went top shelf on North Dakota goaltender Cam Johnson 17 seconds to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead. Sophomore center followed up those two even strength goals with a power play tally off a wicked wrister for his 17th goal of the season. North Dakota cut the deficit to 3-2 with Tyson Jost's one-timer with the Bulldogs down two men at 9:00 of the second period and then tied it with 2:46 to play in the third on another 5-on-3 power play.

Anderson delivered the knockout blow with his 10th goal of the season, giving the Bulldogs their program-best sixth consecutive victory over North Dakota.

North Dakota went 3-for-10 on the power play and wound up outshooting UMD 34-23.

"I'm really excited for our team -- we certainly earned it tonight," said head coach Scott Sandelin, whose Bulldogs cashed in on two of their six opportunities with the man advantage. "It wasn't easy, for sure, but this group again has that character and resiliency all year long. We killed off a huge 5 x 3 during the first period (in which sophomore defenseman Neal Pionk, received a five-minute major for charging) and that gave us a huge lift."

Toninato, Miska, sophomore defenseman Neal Pionk were named to the six-member NCHC Frozen Faceoff All-Tournament Team as was senior left winger Alex Iafallo, who also landed the event's Most Valuable Player Award after collecting one goal and three assists on the weekend.

The Bulldogs will learn of their NCAA I Tournament fate on Sunday (March 19) when the 16-team field is officially announced at 11 a.m. on ESPNU. UMD has advanced to NCAA post season play in five of the past eight seasons, including the last two in a row.

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