MANKATO, Minn. — Final shots on goal fravored Minnesota Duluth by a substantial advantage of 41-27 Friday night, including a whopping third-period margin of 28-5.

Yet the No. 6-ranked Bulldogs were done in by a rough start and too many second-period penalties on the way to a 3-1 loss to No. 23 Minnesota State-Mankato in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association men’s game before 3,875 fans at the Verizon Wireless Center.

Third-place UMD (18-7-5 and 13-6-4) had a chance to make up ground on first-place North Dakota, which tied 3-3 at St. Cloud State. The Bulldogs, though, trailed 2-0 less than nine minutes into the game and never recovered.

“We can’t afford to give teams leads at this time of the year, coming down the stretch,” said UMD junior winger Mike Connolly. “We never quit and did a lot of good things in the third period, and we know things are going to turn around.

“We took ourselves out of the flow of the game in the second period with some undisciplined and unnecessary penalties. I took away a lot of the momentum and I accept the responsibility. I need to control my emotions and make better decisions.”

With 5:39 left in the second period, Connolly was called for a roughing minor and voiced his displeasure, which earned him an unsportsmanlike conduct minor and 10-minute misconduct. That disrupted UMD’s lines into the third period.

Mankato (14-13-6 and 8-13-4) allowed UMD to get within 2-1, then added a goal with 2:27 left in the opening period to get a comfortable-enough cushion as goalie Austin Lee finished with 40 saves. The eighth-place Mavericks (14-13-6 and 8-13-4) entered the series having lost six straight to the Bulldogs and were 0-7-1 the last eight in the series.

“We were able to swing the momentum back (with a third goal), right away, as fast as we could,” said Mankato coach Troy Jutting. “In some areas we were very good and not so good in others, like in our own end. Duluth is a good team, a very good offensive team.”

Mankato Winger Eriah Hayes put a shot just inside the right pipe 5:48 into the game and 2:49 later defenseman Channing Boe converted at the crease for a 2-0 lead past goalie Kenny Reiter. Connolly’s 20th goal of the season got the Bulldogs on the board  with 8:04 left in the first period, and freshman Corey Leivermann put the Mavericks up by the final margin.

The Bulldogs game into the series 4-0-1 in their last five road games, with consecutive shutouts at Michigan Tech in their most recent trip.

“We didn’t play that badly, we had our chances. There were positives to pull out of the game,” said UMD freshman winger J.T. Brown. “We fought to the end with pucks on the goal line, and just didn’t get the goals. We have to bear down on our chances.”

Jack Connolly hit a pipe in the second period and in the Bulldogs spent much of the third period in the offensive zone. Reiter was pulled for an extra attacker with 2:57 remaining and UMD continued on the attack. The Bulldogs are 1-2-2 the last five games with five games left in the regular season.

North Dakota leads the WCHA with 33 points. Denver, which lost 3-1 to Michigan Tech on Friday, is second with 31 and UMD and Nebraska-Omaha are tied at 30 (with Omaha playing a late game at Alaska Anchorage).

“The first and third periods we played alright, but the second period we didn’t do ourselves any favors. We took too many penalties and didn’t give ourselves a chance to get back in there,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “We need to be tougher around the net defensively. You have to sacrifice your body once in a while and block some shots. Right now on offense, the shots aren’t going in so you have to keep at it.”

Minnesota Duluth……………. 1-0-0—1

Minnesota State Mankato…. 3-0-0—3

First period — 1. Mankato, Eriah Hayes 10 (Evan Mosey, Channing Boe), 5:48 (pp); 2. Mankato, Boe 5 (Kurt Davis, Hayes), 8:37 (pp); 3. UMD, Mike Connolly 20 (Jack Connolly), 11:56; 4. Mankato, Corey Leivermann 3 (Chase Grant, Rylan Galiardi), 17:33. Penalties — Justin Fontaine, UMD (hooking), 4:07; J.T. Brown, UMD (boarding), 7:18; Hayes, Mankato (slashing), 18:47.

Second period — No scoring. Penalties — Keegan Flaherty, UMD (slashing), 1:54; Trent Palm, UMD (high sticking), 6:19; Davis, Mankato (roughing), 10:55; Brown, UMD (roughing, elbowing, served by Mike Seidel), 10:55; Mike Louwerse, Mankato (roughing), 13:02; David Grun, UMD (roughing), 13:02; Justin Jokinen, Mankato (slashing), 13:02; Mike Connolly, UMD (roughing, unsportsmanlike conduct, served by Dan DeLisle, 10-minute misconduct), 14:21.

Third period — No scoring. Penalties — Davis, Mankato (tripping), 8:32; Andrew Sackrison, Mankato (tripping), 10:57.

Shots on goal — UMD 8-5-28—41; Mankato 8-14-5—27. Goalies — Kenny Reiter (9-5-4), UMD (27 shots-24 saves); Austin Lee (4-3-2), Mankato (41 shots-40 saves). Power plays — UMD 0-of-4, Mankato 2-of-6. Referees — Pete Friesma, Tom Sterns. Linesmen — Tony Czech, Dan Dineen. A — 3,875.