Late UAA goal forges ties with No. 7 North Dakota in hockey opener

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UAA’s Austin Azurdia, left, collides with North Dakota’s Ludvig Hoff in the first period. UAA played North Dakota in its home opener at the Sullivan Arena on October 6, 2017. (Marc Lester / Alaska Dispatch News)

A clutch night by senior goaltender Olivier Mantha and a late goal by a freshman forward Jordan Xavier lifted the UAA hockey team to a 1-1 tie against seventh-ranked North Dakota in its season opener Friday at Sullivan Arena.

Xavier scored the game-tying goal with a little more than one minute left in regulation, and Mantha made three straight saves in the closing moments of overtime.

Xavier, a 5-foot-11 center from Calgary, Alberta, notched UAA's first goal of the season and the first of his collegiate career off a backhand pass from winger Tad Kozun. The shot got past the reach of Fighting Hawks goalie Cam Johnson.

The teams remained tied through a 5-on-5 sudden-death overtime, so the game stands as a tie in the standings. After a scoreless 3-on-3 overtime period, North Dakota's Austin Poganski scored a shootout goal to give the Fighting Hawks some brownie points.

"I liked our effort from start to finish," UAA coach Matt Thomas said. "There are things we need to be better on, but that's a really good team over there and it was just nice to see that we had no quit in us and we worked as hard as we worked."

In the first period, UAA stuck with the Fighting Hawks on both ends of the ice with six shots on goal to North Dakota's seven. The teams were scoreless heading into the locker room.

But in the second and third periods, UAA needed a stellar penalty kill and a first-rate effort by Mantha to stay in the game.

North Dakota outshot UAA 24-7 in the latter two periods, but was 0 for 5 on the power play.

Mantha finished with 32 saves. In the second overtime, he stopped three consecutive shots in the closing seconds, and even some North Dakota fans in the announced crowd of 2,563 applauded his effort.

"He made all the saves he needed to make, he made big-time saves at key times," Thomas said. "Anytime you're gonna have a good result against a really good team, you're gonna need a good goaltender and he was as advertised tonight."

North Dakota garnered its lone goal in the second period from Johnny Simonson.

The UAA left the arena with a tie, it didn't come without a loss. Team captain Matt Anholt left with a lower body injury in the first period after he took a hit into the boards.

Thomas said Anholt missed the rest of the game for cautionary reasons. He said he won't know the extent of the injury until Anholt is evaluated.

The Seawolves return to Sullivan Arena for their second game against the Fighting Hawks at 7:07 p.m. Saturday.