Despite registering 58 shots on goal Saturday evening against Boston University — its highest shot total in 13 years — the North Dakota men’s hockey team was unable to bounce back from a 3-1 loss Friday, posting a 3-3 tie Saturday at Agganis Arena in Boston.

While 40 of UND’s shots on net came during the second and third periods, its total nearly doubled the visitors’ 31 total shots. But Matt O’Connor stood firm in between the pipes for BU — stopping a career-high 55 shots.

North Dakota may not have claimed a victory, but junior forward Stephane Pattyn remains optimistic with the team’s progress.

“Very disappointing,” Pattyn said. “I thought we played really well. Their goaltender played really well. The way we played, if we keep playing like that, we’re going to win more games than we lose.”

After BU claimed the lead in the first period Saturday, UND bounced back with a goal from Bryn Chyzyk, the sophomore forward’s second of the year.

The story was much the same in the second period as BU’s Nick Roberto put the puck in the net past Zane Gothberg at 7:13, less than a minute before Pattyn responded with a goal to make it 2-2.

North Dakota opened scoring in the third period with a powerplay goal from Adam Tambellini at 6:45 of the final frame, as he received a feed from Brendan O’Donnell and sniped it in the net.

The lead was short-lived, as the Terriers recorded a third goal minutes later to send the teams to overtime — but neither could break the 3-3 tie.

“We just wanted to come out and compete tonight,” Hakstol said. “That was our issue last night; we didn’t compete at the level we expect to through a 60-minute game. We didn’t have a lot of comfortable guys in our locker room today and I think we played that way.”

Losing battle

UND’s energy level Friday was below that of Saturday, as it ran into a 3-0 deficit with minutes remaining on the clock.

Rocco Grimaldi’s goal at 17:23 of the third period ended the game 3-1, but it was the later half of the first period that caused the Green and White trouble, as the Terriers tallied two goals — one on the power play.

“We had a good first 7-8 minutes of the game, and then we spent the last half of the period killing penalties, and we ended up with a two-goal deficit, and that’s hard to overcome on the road,” Hakstol said. “You’re spending energy killing (penalties) and trying to play defense, rather than putting that energy into getting on our toes and playing on the offensive side of the puck. I think that took a lot out or our game tonight.”

While North Dakota only brought one point with it back to Grand Forks, its perseverance allowed it to gain valuable experience.

“As usual, when you come out on an eastern swing, you usually run into different challenges, and obviously we ran into some challenges this weekend,” Hakstol said. “But we probably got better as a hockey team, even though we’re leaving with one point.”

Elizabeth Erickson is the sports editor of The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected].