DULUTH, Minn. - National Player of the Week Drew Shore (Denver) scored the game-winner and freshman Jason Zucker (Las Vegas) tallied his first career hat trick as No. 10 Denver rallied for a 5-4 overtime win tonight at top-ranked Minnesota Duluth.

No. 10 Denver improves to 11-4-2 and 8-2-1 WCHA with its seventh consecutive win, while No. 1 Minnesota Duluth falls to 11-2-2, 8-2-1. The Pioneers and Bulldogs are tied for first in the WCHA with 17 points each.

"It was certainly a roller coaster-type game," DU head coach George Gwozdecky said. "We found a way to win after giving up a three-goal lead and that's tough to do on the road in the WCHA."

Denver jumped to a 3-0 lead before Minnesota Duluth took a late 4-3 lead with four unanswered goals. Zucker's third goal from an improbable angle below the goal line tied it with 1:22 left before Shore won it in overtime at 3:02.

Anthony Maiani (Shelby Township, Mich.) also scored and Zucker added an assist for his first career four-point game. Sam Brittain (Calgary, Alberta) got the win with 29 saves.

Jack Connolly led the Bulldogs with a goal and two assists. Kenny Reiter (12 saves) took the tough loss in relief of Aaron Crandall (five saves).

Zucker's backhanded goal from Matt Donovan (Edmond, Okla.) gave DU a 1-0 lead 54 seconds into the game. Maiani made it 2-0 when his shot from the right circle bounced off goaltender Crandall and into the back of the net at 7:22. 

Zucker's second goal at 1:25 of the second stanza gave the Pioneers a 3-0 lead and ended the night for Crandall.

Duluth then scored four unanswered goals. Jack Connolly scored at 1:32, Wade Bergman made it 3-2 at 4:37 and Mike Connolly's power-play goal at 16:05 tied the game heading into the third period.

Kyle Schmidt gave UMD the lead at 15:02 before Zucker's and Shore's late-game heroics.

Zucker threw a shot at the net that bounced off a Minnesota Duluth defenseman past Reiter to tie the game at 4-4.

Luke Salazar (Thornton, Colo.) accepted a pass from Zucker and slid a nifty pass to Shore in the low slot for the game-winner in overtime.

Minnesota Duluth outshot Denver, 33-22, and went 1-for-5 on the power play. DU went 0-for-3 with the man-advantage.

Game two of the series is tomorrow night at 6:07 p.m. MT.

Notes: Beau Bennett (Gardena, Calif.) left the game in the second period with a right knee injury and didn't return. Bennett had an assist to extend his point streak to four games. Drew Shore, who was named National Player of the Week earlier in the day, has a five-game point streak.