After holding off Minnesota Duluth on Friday night at Mariucci Arena, in a 5-3 victory, No. 2-ranked Minnesota saw two other WCHA title contenders fall on the road in Colorado. That left the Gophers (and Nebraska-Omaha) one point behind first-place St. Cloud State in the MacNaughton Cup race with five games remaining.

The three games combined for 24 goals.

The top seven teams are separated by one point. The WCHA standings are below.

UMD’s loss dropped the Bulldogs one spot, to ninth, two points behind Colorado College entering today’s 7:07 p.m. rematch with the Gophers (94.1 FM and Big Ten Network). A News Tribune live blog is here.

Recaps from Friday’s UMD-Minnesota game from the News Tribune here, St. Paul Pioneer Press here and Minneapolis Star Tribune here.

Bruce Ciskie looks at Bullodgs-Gophers right here.

In Colorado Springs, Colo., three third-period goals rallied Colorado College to a 4-3 victory over No. 7 St. Cloud State. The Huskies led 2-0 on goals by Jonny Brodzinski 15 and Andrew Prochnow and were up 2-1 after two periods. The Tigers came back as right winger Charlie Taft had two goals and an assist in the final period, including the game winner with 5:52 left. Rylan Schwartz also had a goal and two assists. St. Cloud State led in shots 43-29. Attendance 6,672. From the St. Cloud Times here and Colorado Springs Gazette here.

At Denver, three second-period goals helped No. 10 Denver come back to beat No. 6 North Dakota 5-4. North Dakota led 2-1 just 68 seconds into the second on a Carter Rowney goal. Denver scored four of the next five goals as Chris Knowlton had a goal and an assist. Zane Gothberg started in goal for North Dakota, lasted 24 minutes, and was replaced by Clarke Saunders. Denver led in shots 41-39. Attendance 6,031. From the Denver Post here and Grand Forks Herald here.

WCHA Summaries and Standings Courtesy of College Hockey Stats.net

 1 St. Cloud State   31  23 15- 7- 1 .674  77- 51   31 18-12- 1 .597 102- 76
 2 Minnesota         30  23 13- 6- 4 .652  78- 56   31 21- 6- 4 .742 115- 62
   Nebraska Omaha    30  24 14- 8- 2 .625  83- 70   32 18-12- 2 .594 112- 88
 4 Minnesota State   29  24 14- 9- 1 .604  77- 57   32 20- 9- 3 .672 104- 71
 5 North Dakota      28  23 11- 6- 6 .609  76- 61   31 16- 9- 6 .613 100- 79
 6 Denver            27  23 11- 7- 5 .587  75- 68   30 16- 9- 5 .617 103- 81
   Wisconsin         27  24 10- 7- 7 .562  54- 53   30 13-10- 7 .550  68- 62
 8 Colorado College  22  23  9-10- 4 .478  76- 80   31 12-14- 5 .468 104-108
 9 Minnesota Duluth  20  25  8-13- 4 .400  62- 77   31 10-17- 4 .387  76- 94
10 Bemidji State     16  24  5-13- 6 .333  50- 72   30  6-17- 7 .317  62- 89
   Michigan Tech     16  24  6-14- 4 .333  62- 82   30 10-16- 4 .400  89- 94
12 Alaska Anchorage  10  26  2-18- 6 .192  50- 93   30  4-19- 7 .250  61-104

  Minnesota Duluth   3 at Minnesota          5       Box   
  St. Cloud State    3 at Colorado College   4       Box   
  North Dakota       4 at Denver             5       Box