KALAMAZOO -- Western Michigan took an early 1-0 lead on the defending national champions, Minnesota-Duluth- but were unable to sustain the lead and fell 4-1 in front of 3,655 fans at Lawson Ice Arena on Friday night.

The Broncos picked up an early lead on Chase Balisy's sixth goal of the season at 12:09 in the first period. Balisy back-handed in a rebound on a shot by Shane Berschbach. Berschbach picked up his 11th assist of the season and freshman Jordan Oesterle notched his fifth but the Broncos were unable to hold the lead.

No. 1 Minnesota-Duluth went on to score four straight goals to down the Broncos. J.T. Brown tallied his seventh goal of the season on the first of two power play goals for the Bulldogs at 9:09 in the second period. Brown punched in a rebound on a shot by Travis Oleksuk and beat WMU goalie Frank Slubowski to tie the game 1-1.

In the third period Duluth scored two goals in less than three minutes with the first coming on a 5-on-3 power play. Jack Connolly found Oleksuk alone at the bottom of the right circle and he buried it into an open net for his 14th of the season. The assist was Connolly's second of three on the night as he would set up Joe Basaraba minutes later. Basaraba fired a shot from the right circle and it trickled past Slubowski and in to give the Bulldogs a 3-1 lead with just 5:26 left in the game.

Jake Hendrickson added an empty-net goal with six seconds remaining to seal the win.

Slubowski made 24 saves in the loss, while UMD's Kenny Reiter made 26. The Bulldogs finished 2-for-6 on the power play and the Broncos failed to convert on their three chances with the man-advantage.

The two teams battle it out for WMU's final non-conference game of the season at 7 p.m. on Saturday night.