OMAHA, Neb. — In the post-game press conference, goalie Ryan Massa patted Austin Ortega on the back and said, “What’s up hero?”
Nebraska-Omaha’s hero scored his ninth game-winning goal of the year, the most in the NCAA, as the Mavericks knocked off No. 1 North Dakota in overtime at home.
“Austin Ortega’s got a horseshoe in his pocket,” Mavericks coach Dean Blais said. “He did it again.”
In front of the biggest crowd Omaha has drawn all year with 11,168 in attendance, Omaha fans did their best job of replicating Ralph Engelstad Arena in a buzzing environment.
“There was quite a bit of hype there coming into the game, and it lived up to it,” Tyler Vesel said. “It couldn’t have been any better.”
Ortega scored the game-winning goal on a redirect near the crease. Ian Brady, standing near the boards, sent a shot into the middle through traffic that Ortega was able to get the toe of his stick on.
“We had been working on our five-on-three, lately we were really moving the puck around,” Ortega said. “At first, we weren’t really doing what we wanted to do and I kind of got out of place there, but I know Ian was on the wall and I kind of found that open space and he made a beautiful pass to me and it was really fortunate.”
It was Vesel who got things started when the freshman got past Troy Stecher on a hesitation toe drag and backhanded a goal while falling to give the Mavs the early lead at 18:19 in the first period
The Mavs built on that in the second period when Avery Peterson whacked a bouncing puck that managed to sneak past Zane McIntyre at 2:46 in the second period, but it was a lead that wouldn’t last long.
“Being up 2-0, we kind of got complacent with ourselves,” Vesel said.
North Dakota nearly got within one in the second period on a shot that hit the cross bar and trickled along the goal line, but after review it was called off.
Near the end of the second period, Joel Messner was ejected for a 5:00 game misconduct penalty, served by Kyle Mountain, for checking Brendan O’Donnell from behind into the boards.
The Mavs killed the penalty, but UND scored just seconds after it expired with a rush that left Massa out of position and unable to make the save.
UNO continued to suffer from penalties when Avery Peterson was called for charging and Brian Cooper for tripping in the latter part of the third period.
At 19:12, it finally caught up to the Mavericks when on a six-on-four due to the empty net, Drake Caggiula equalized on a tap-in goal and both sides skated to the end of regulation tied 2-2.
It was the second time the two teams have needed overtime this season.
“With the No. 1 team in the country, to get any kind of points at all … we all had our lists out there, who was going to be in the shootout,” Blais said. “It didn’t get there thanks to Ortega’s power-play goal.”
With two shots off the pipe, a goal review and facing a five-on-three in overtime, it seemed like luck wasn’t with North Dakota Friday. Coach Dave Hakstol said they need to just keep playing their game.
“It had nothing to do with luck; we played a good hockey game,” Hakstol said. “We played the way we play. We played hard for nearly 65 minutes, that’s what we do. We didn’t do anything different tonight.”
With the buzz in Omaha at a new high for Mavericks hockey and the game welcoming a national audience, it seemed like the hype was too much to live up to.
After another game-winner from the team’s savior, it’s safe to say Friday’s game delivered.
“The crowd was another motivator,” Blais said. “Usually I don’t hear the crowd, but they were going pretty good and like we said, we gave them something to cheer about because I thought it was a great up and down hockey game.”
Although the Mavs know how it feels to get past UND, they also know that this team is ranked No. 1 for a reason and that Saturday will be an even bigger challenge.
“That’s not a happy team over there,” Massa said. “And as we learned in their building, beating them in a shootout and then the next night, they came out with vengeance and they came out with a three-point win. So, they’re No. 1 for a reason and we certainly can’t take anything lightly or for granted and can’t even be satisfied with tonight.”
