GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- University of North Dakota hockey captain Stephane Pattyn is not known as a big goal scorer, having just 14 to his credit in 139 career games heading into tonight's play.

The senior wing from Ste. Anne, Manitoba, sniped his 15th goal late in the second period of the Subway Classic victory over Omaha -- and it turned out to be as big as they get, the game winner.

His shorthanded wrist shot rocket from the left boards came with one second left in an Omaha power play and beat Omaha goalie Ryan Massa (20 saves) to the far top corner in Massa's glove side late in the second period.

Pattyn's second goal of the season -- both shorthanded -- was his first in 12 games and gave UND four of six points from the Mavericks in the weekend National Collegiate Hockey Conference series.

Pattyn's overall gritty play -- and superb sniping on his goal -- matched the outstanding play of UND junior goalie Zane McIntyre, who stopped 32 of 34 shots, 14 of them in the last period, in the win.

"He got all that 225, 230-pound frame into that shot,'' McIntyre said of Pattyn. "That would be tough for any goalie to stop.''

Added McIntytre on Pattyn: "He's a heckuva shot, heckuva player, heckuva leader.''

McIntyre was named No. 1 star by the media. Pattyn picked up second star with UND's nation-leading eighth shorthanded goal of the season. Drake Caggiula, with two assists to add to his team-leading point total, was third star.

Omaha outshot UND 34-23 but the play of McIntyre and Pattyn, along with goals by defenseman Jordan Schmaltz (power play) and Mark MacMillan (7th) were enough to carry UND to the win.

"Not a whole lot different than last night,'' UND coach Dave Hakstol, in reference to Friday's 2-2 tie, with Omaha picking up an extra league point with a shootout win.

"Close, hard-fought game,'' Hakstol said. "We scored a power-play goal early, but at no point in time was this anything but a battle, bottom line.''

UND struck first on a power-play goal by defenseman Jordan Schmaltz, who took a perfect feed from behind the net from Caggiula and cranked his shot from center slot off the body of Massa and into the net at 2:02 of the first period. UND had been 3 of 34 on the power play over the previous eight games, so this provided UND an early boost.

MacMillan scored on a backhander at 12:36 of the first period to make it 2-0. His shot kicked off the skate of an Omaha defenseman and bounced off Massa's head before settling into the net.

Omaha's Jake Randolph chopped the lead to 2-1 at 15:52 of the second period, capping some heavy pressure by the Mavs with his rebound goal from in close.

But Pattyn grabbed a perfect touch pass off the side wall by Michael Parks while killing a Caggiula penalty to score his shorthanded goal at 18:07 of the second period to make it 3-1.

That was enough, though Omaha rookie Grant Gallo scored on a rebound at 13:48 of the third period to make it 3-2. It was Gallo's first career point.

McIntyre made a huge save on Omaha's Joel Messner with two minutes left. Messner moved in from the left point to get off a great shot, only to be turned back by Gothberg's quick move to his right.

Omaha coach Dean Blais pulled Massa for a sixth attacker with 1:59 left in the game, but the Mavs managed just two shots on net with the extra attacker against a procession of UND defenders.

McIntyre was at his best in the third period when the Mavs outshot UND 15-3 but managed just the one goal.

"Sometimes you need your goaltender to be your best player at different times in a hockey game, and I thought at times in the third, he was,'' Hakstol said. "That's a positive.''

The fact that UND took four of the six NCHC points available on the weekend wasn't lost on Hakstol.

"It's a weekend series win on a national level,'' Hakstol said. "You take small steps forward every weekend, that's all we're trying to do. It's hard to do that in this league.''

Speaking of hard, Pattyn said UND wanted to be difficult to play against.

"We wanted to come in and be simple, be hard,'' said. "I think we did what we have to do to win.''

McIntyre saw to it that the effort paid off.

"Zano saved us the game, that's for sure,'' Pattyn said. "He played outstanding in that third period. He's a rock for us back there.''

UND improved to 10-3-2 overall and 5-2-1-0 in league play. Omaha is 7-3-2 overall, 3-2-1-1 in league play, after suffering its first road loss (5-1-1) of the season.

Game notes: Pattyn, MacMillan and Paul LaDue led UND in shots on goal with three each ... Defenseman Troy Stecher was the only UND player with a plus-2 rating. He leads the team this season at plus-10 ... Omaha's Luc Snuggerud had four shots on goal to lead all players ... UND was 1-4 on the power play with seven shots, Omaha 0-4 with four shots ... UND won the faceoff battle 39-32, led by MacMillan (15 of 25) ... UND hosts Lake Superior State in a nonconference series next weekend.

Virg Foss covered UND hockey for 35 seasons for the Grand Forks Herald until his retirement in 2005. He's now in his 10th season of reporting on UND games exclusively for UNDsports.com.