MARQUETTE, Mich. â€Â“ The Northern Michigan University hockey team jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead before the Nebraska-OmahaMavericks tied the game with a goal in the second and third periods.  The â€Â˜Catspulled out the 3-2 win as the game-winning goal was scored with 24 seconds leftin the game. 

NMU is now 7-4-2 overall on the season and 5-3-1 in theCCHA.  UNO falls to 7-5-1 and 5-5-1.  â€ÂœI did not think that we played wellafter the first period,â€Â Walt Kyle said.  â€ÂœI was not happy with our second andthird periods.  Some big players came up with some big plays at the righttime.â€Â

Kevin Gardner scored his first goal of the season at 4:14 ofthe first period to give the â€Â˜Cats the early 1-0 lead.  The goal was the fourthshorthanded goal of the season for the â€Â˜Cats.  During the 2003-04 season NMUhad two shorthanded goals.  Andrew Contois and Zach Tarkir assisted on thegoal. Ã‚  Mike Santorelli would score his sixth goal of the season at 17:54 togive the home team the 2-0 lead.  Matt Siddall and Contois assisted. 

The Maverick scored goals at 10:15 of the second and 4:28 ofthe third periods.  With the score tied at two-all, Nathan Oystrick somehowfound the back of the net at 19:36 of the third period for the winning goal.  â€ÂœPatBateman just went down low and made a hit on a guy and the puck popped loose. Darin Olver went down and got it and just made a pass out to me.  I shot it andit somehow found a way into the net,â€Â Oystrick said.  Darin Olver and GeoffWaugh assisted.  UNO had one more shot than the â€Â˜Cats on the night at 25-24.

Tuomas Tarkki had 23 saves for the â€Â˜Cats on the night as hepicked up his fifth win of the season.  â€ÂœTuomas (Tarkki) played well,â€Â Kyleadded.  Chris Holt for UNO had 21 saves.  Neither team could score on the powerplay as NMU was 0-5 and the Mavericks were 0-8 on the night.  â€ÂœSpecial teamsare going to win you games,â€Â Oystrick added.

The cluster mates will face each other for the second gameof the weekend tilt on Saturday night (Dec. 4) at 7:35 p.m. at the Berry Events Center.