GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Proving the old adage that a two-goal lead is the worst lead in hockey, North Dakota couldn't hold on to its 4-2 advantage and settled for a 4-4 overtime tie with Harvard of the ECAC.

"It's tough, you know," said junior center Carter Rowney (Sexmith, Alberta), who had two assists. "Home barn, come out with a two-goal lead in the third period, and we give that up. We can't have that. Second half, every game's a playoff game right now. We let that one slip, and it's just not acceptable."

"I just thought we went out soft in the third period," said UND coach Dave Hakstol. "We had three shots on goal I think 15 minutes into the period. We didn't go out and play hard in the third period. That's what cost us the game."

Although UND outshot Harvard 8-2 in the first period, it was the Crimson who led 1-0 after the opening stanza. With the nation's best power play, Harvard needed just 15 seconds to score on its first opportunity with the man advantage. Defenseman Patrick McNally's backhander at the 15:13 mark was Harvard's first shot on goal and it gave the Crimson the early lead.

UND came out on fire in the second period to grab a 2-1 lead. Freshman defenseman Nick Mattson (Chanhassen, Minn.) blasted a shot from the point past Harvard freshman goalie Steve Michalek just 1:25 into the period. Fourteen seconds later, freshman forward Brendan O'Donnell (Winnipeg, Manitoba) gave UND the lead on a wrister from near the right dot.

The Crimson made it a 2-2 game when senior center Alex Killorn notched his seventh goal of the season at 2:55. Mattson ruined Harvard's chance to regain the lead when he tallied a shorthanded goal at 5:12 to give the green and white a 3-2 lead. It was the first shorthanded goal by a UND defenseman since Derrick LaPoint scored against Minnesota on Oct. 16, 2009.

UND freshman forward Conner Gaarder (Edina, Minn.) notched his first collegiate goal at 12:51 when he picked up a rebound from Carter Rowney's (Sexsmith, Alberta) shot, skated behind the net and stuffed in a wraparound. Unfortunately, UND couldn't hold its 4-2 lead through the third period.

Harvard forward Alex Fallstrom made it a 4-3 game at 10:16. The game-tying goal at 13:16 by the Crimson's Marshall Everson occurred after UND junior goalie Aaron Dell's (Airdrie, Alberta) glove came off. The officials reviewed the replay, but allowed the goal to stand.

"That's not a reviewable play, unfortunately," Hakstol said. "If that was a reviewable play, it may have turned out differently."

Thanks to a penalty on Everson with 2:20 left in overtime, UND outshot Harvard 4-0 and had some quality scoring opportunities. But Michalek made some big saves for Harvard, which held on for the nonconference tie before 11,550 fans at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

"It was probably our best power play of the night," Hakstol said. "It was our only power play that played with high intensity and a small amount of desperation. You have to string three, four or five of those together throughout the hockey game in order to get a goal or two on the power play. Unfortunately, we didn't do that."

"Obviously, it's disappointing," Mattson said of the outcome. "I thought we played pretty well the first 40 minutes. The last period, we kind of played not to lose. It was not acceptable. We're going to come back with a pretty big chip on our shoulder tomorrow."

Hakstol was clearly unhappy with the team's performance in the third period.

"I thought we were on our heels, and I thought we had our heads up our rear ends," he said.

Harvard went 1-3 on the power play while UND was 0-5. Michalek made 33 saves on 37 shots and Dell stopped 14 of the 18 shots he faced.

Both teams entered the series one game above .500 will stay there. UND is 9-8-2 overall (7-7-1 WCHA) and Harvard is 4-3-4 overall (3-3-3 ECAC). The puck drops Saturday at 7:07 p.m. in Engelstad Arena for the second game.