Box Score OMAHA, Neb. – The No. 13 Omaha hockey team dropped a 4-2 decision to No. 4 North Dakota on Friday night at Baxter Arena.

The loss dropped the Mavericks into sixth place in the NCHC after both Miami and Minnesota Duluth won on Friday.  The Mavericks, losers of three straight, are now 18-12-1 overall and 8-12-1-0/0 in the conference.  North Dakota took over first place with the win, improving to 25-5-3 overall and 16-4-1-0/1 in the conference.

The Mavericks struck first late in the opening period.  Fredrik Olofsson slipped a pass in traffic to Justin Parizek who quickly found Jake Guentzel cutting to the net.  He fired a shot between goalie Cam Johnson and the left post for his career-best 17th goal of the season.

North Dakota tied the game just 1:31 into the second period.  Tucker Poolman picked off a clearing attempt in the UNO zone and wired a shot under the crossbar.

UND then took its first lead on a power play when Luke Johnson fired home his eighth goal of the year off an assist from Poolman at 11:52.

The Fighting Hawks extended their lead when Drake Caggiula had a shot deflect past Alex Blankenburg just 53 seconds into the third period.

UNO drew to within one at 6:12 when Guentzel set up Olofsson for a one-timer that landed just under the crossbar.  It was his first goal since Nov. 28 against Ohio State, a span of 14 games.

But the Mavericks could not net the equalizer, and Brock Boeser scored his NCHC-leading 21st goal of the year into an empty net with 53 seconds remaining.

Blankenburg made 20 saves in the loss while Johnson also had 20.

The final game of the series is Saturday at 7:07 p.m.