No. 20 Omaha made a furious rally Friday to push the nation's hottest team to the brink.

The Mavericks (20-15) battled back from a two-goal deficit in the third period to take No. 4/5 North Dakota (22-11-1), a winner of seven straight games, to overtime before falling 5-4 on a Tyler Kleven goal.

Omaha trailed 4-2 with less than 12 minutes remaining at Baxter Arena. Kevin Conley's power-play goal with 11:11 left pulled the Mavericks within one, energizing a season-best home crowd of 6,387 fans.

After a number of close misses in the final minutes, Taylor Ward scored while Omaha had an extra attacker on the ice with 56 seconds remaining to force overtime. Kleven then scored the winner 1:28 in.

The Mavericks outshot the Fighting Hawks 18-5 during the third and extra periods. UND clinched the NCHC's regular-season championship with the bonus point it earned in overtime. Omaha, meanwhile, will finish sixth in the final standings, meaning it will head to Western Michigan for the NCHC playoffs.

"Emotional game. Lots of highs and lows throughout the game," Maverick coach Mike Gabinet said. "[That was] a great job by our group to come back and to tie the game up there. Obviously, tough with the overtime loss. But I really commend our guys for showing up in the third period and playing well."

Omaha fell behind 1-0 and 2-1 in the first, with Cameron Berg scoring its early goal off a faceoff win 12:33 in. North Dakota's Cooper Moore scored a 4-on-3 power-play goal late in the first to move his team in front. The Fighting Hawks were still on a five-minute power play when Griffin Ness scored in the second.

Matt Miller put in a rebound less than three minutes later to pull the Mavericks back within a goal at 3-2. But UND reclaimed its two-score advantage when Jake Schmaltz found the net for the second time.

Omaha bounced back with a dominant third period in which it outshot North Dakota 16-3. Conley buried a one-timer off a Ward assist during a power play at the 8:49 to draw the Mavericks back within a goal.

"We came out in the third period ready to go and answered the bell a little bit," Conley said. "And I think we fed off the crowd a lot. They were great tonight and helped us get some momentum there."

Omaha kept the pressure on after, nearly getting the equalizer on multiple occasions. It wasn't until goalie Austin Roden was on the sidelines that the Mavericks finally leveled the score again. Ward drove home a pass from Tyler Weiss with under a minute remaining while Omaha was pressuring with a 6-on-5 advantage.

"I thought we were pressing there for the majority of the period," Ward said. "I think we could've scored a handful of goals there to tie it up. It took until the 19th minute, and [Weiss] made a great play. I was lucky enough to put it in. It was big. It was fun to fight back there. I think the guys showed a lot of heart. It's too bad we didn't pull it off in overtime."