The Western Michigan Broncos headed into the weekend with the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs on a four-game winning streak. It was a huge weekend against the defending national champions on the ice in their only meeting in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference's regular season.

On Friday night, the Broncos struck first on an Ethen Frank goal, going top shelf over Duluth netminder Hunter Shepard just 3:39 into the contest. Frank was being held while getting the shot off racing through the right circle.

Jesse Jacques would score his first career goal for the Bulldogs to end the first period 1-1, with Justin Richards adding a goal late in the second to give Duluth the lead.

Western knotted the game back up early in the third on a Hugh McGing tally, a backhander that beat Shepard high to tie at 2-2.

Lawson would erupt in the final minute with the Broncos game winner with nine seconds left thanks to Colt Conrad. Here's the call from the final minute, provided by Western Michigan Bronco Athletics.

Saturday night played almost the same way between the two clubs. McGing struck first on the fourth-ranked team in the nation just 46 seconds in to give the Broncos the 1-0 lead.

The game became tied with Duluth's Noah Cates scoring the only power play goal of the weekend with just under seven minutes left in the second period.

Western and Duluth would play all the way to a 1-1 draw (under NCAA rules), and through two five-minute overtimes. The shootout went three players in before a score. McGing would slide left before going in front of Shepard, popping the puck under the crossbar to give the Broncos the advantage. Duluth was unable to score in their last chance, stoned by Bronco goaltender Trevor Gorsuch.

The Broncos earned three points in the NCHC standings with the Friday win and received two points with the tie and shootout win.

Western is off until the Ice Vegas Invitational January 4th and 5th, as they open with the Connecticut Huskies.

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