KALAMAZOO, MI – Western Michigan University senior captain Chase Balisy recorded his first career hat trick Saturday and helped the Broncos pick up three big points in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference standings.

Balisy’s three goals lifted the Broncos to a 3-1 win over visiting Denver on Senior Night and moved WMU into a tie with Minnesota-Duluth for fourth place in the NCHC standings. UMD holds the tiebreaker with WMU, meaning the Broncos will need to pick up one more point than the Bulldogs do next weekend in the final series of the regular season.

Broncos coach Andy Murray said he thought Balisy and the three other seniors, Shane Berschbach, Mike Cichy and Dennis Brown, were solid in the win.

“Senior night, he has his parents here and that was his first career hat trick," Murray said with a smile about Balisy. "The way the puck bounced up to center ice and you look up and it is Chase going in on it and you couldn’t pick a better ending. The first thing that he said was that they waved to all the fans tonight but they did not say goodbye to our fans here at Lawson because that will happen in a couple weeks.

"We are a determined group and we are obviously playing a very good team, North Dakota, next week but we have battled all year to prove people wrong and we will try and continue to do that. I thought our other seniors were real good tonight."

Western Michigan (16-13-5, 10-10-2 NCHC) plays at league-leading North Dakota Friday and Saturday while Duluth hosts third-place Nebraska-Omaha.

The Broncos gained a 1-0 lead 3:22 into the game when Balisy cleaned up a rebound on a shot by Shane Berschbach.

Denver responded exactly midway through the first period when Ty Loney scored to tie things up at a goal apiece.

The Broncos got a big boost from their penalty kill in the second period when Josh Pitt was whistled for checking from behind and given a game misconduct. The Pioneers had a five-minute power play, but they did not record a shot on goal.

Balisy said the Broncos knew they had to bear down and focus during DU's five-minute advantage.

“We knew it was going to be tough," he said. "We had three PK units going and we all did a great job and I don’t think they got anything set up too much in the zone. We all knew what happened last night when they scored the five minute and we knew we had to bear down and block shots. We had a lot of blocked shots on the PK.”

Denver finished 0-for-2 on the power play.

Balisy gave the Broncos a 2-1 lead 7:19 into the third period on a good feed from linemate Justin Kovacs on a breakaway.

Murray said he thought his team was more assertive than it was in Friday's 4-2 loss to Denver, especially in the second and third periods.

“I thought our team was better tonight than we were last night," Murray said. "Let’s give Denver credit they are a feisty team and they play hard. Coach (Jim) Montgomery does a nice job with them and I told him after the game that I thought he managed his bench really well here and you made matchups tough. He is missing a couple guys who are good players but they were obviously in it right until the end. I thought we were assertive particularly the last 40 minutes which is how are team usually plays.”

Western Michigan was 0-for-5 with the man advantage, but Murray said he liked the way his team managed the puck on the power play.

Denver pulled goalie Evan Cowley with around one minute left in the third. Balisy scored an empty-netter with 12 seconds remaining.

“It was a pretty good feeling, I’m not going to lie," Balisy said of his third goal. "My teammates worked hard all night and it is pretty nice for our seniors to go out on top with a win like that. The guys really worked hard out there and it was really special tonight.”

Berschbach said the win on Senior Night was one he'll remember.

“It was a special night with a lot of emotion from our team," he said. "We wanted to play for us four and we put it together and a huge win.”

WMU finished with a 39-23 advantage in shots on goal. Cowley made 36 saves.

Lukas Hafner started in net for the Broncos and made 22 saves in the victory.

Email David Drew at ddrew1@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter and on Google+