GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- You wouldn't throw the Pope out of a Sunday church service.

And you'd never think that University of North Dakota coaching legend Dean Blais would get tossed out of a hockey game at a school where he once enjoyed great coaching success.

But Nebraska Omaha overcame the ejection of Blais with a game misconduct penalty late in the first period tonight to rally from a 3-1 deficit early in the second period to beat his old team 6-3.

The Mavericks rode a hat trick from Josh Archibald -- son of former UND star Jim Archibald -- to the victory and a split of the weekend series after UND had won 4-2 Friday night.

Archibald scored three goals in a row over the second and third periods, his team-leading 19th, 20th and 21st of the year, to spark the Mavericks.

When Blais became just the second coach (Denver's George Gwozdecky being the other) to be tossed out of a game since Ralph Engelstad Arena opened in 2001, that seemed to spark the Mavericks.

"It definitely did,'' Archibald said. "If he's going to do stuff like that for us, we're going to battle for him any day.''

When a bench minor was given to Omaha at 17:07 of the opening period, Blais delayed sending a player to the penalty box, despite earlier warnings about slow player changes. It was also Omaha's fifth straight penalty of the period to none for UND. Blais was then hit with the game misconduct penalty by the referees and assistant Troy Jutting coached the rest of the way.

Blais chose not to speak to the media after the game.

"Just like the kids, you've got do what you've got to do,'' Jutting said. "Coach is a competitive guy. You guys all know him. This is an important game. The kids feed off his competitiveness. When they saw how competitive he was tonight, they understood the intensity level of the game and the importance of the game.''

The loss knocked North Dakota (9-7 league, 14-9-3 overall) out of a tie for first place with St. Cloud State in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. UND now is tied for third place with Omaha, three points behind St. Cloud State.

North Dakota had actually grabbed a 3-1 lead early in the second period before the roof fell in on the home team. Drake Caggiula scored just 43 seconds into the period for a 2-1 UND lead. At 2:07, defenseman Jordan Schmaltz scored his third of the year after Omaha goalie Kirk Thompson had stopped his initial shot. But Omaha defenseman Brian O'Rourke bowled Thompson over while racing back to help, the puck being knocked into the net in the process.

That's when Archibald's line centered by Dominic Zombo, son of former UND player Rick Zombo, took charge.

Zombo spun in a rebound at 5:55, Archibald tied it on a bank shot off the leg of a UND player at 7:48 on a power play and then put Omaha ahead to stay at 13:56 with a rebound goal.

Archibald's third goal at 2:51 of the third period came on a speed rush down left wing. He blazed across the crease, drawing UND goalie Clarke Saunders (29 saves) off the near post and slid the puck past his trailing leg as Saunders moved to follow Archibald across the crease. That made it 5-3 with Zahn Raubenheimer adding Omaha's final goal.

The loss snapped UND's seven-game home winning streak and prevented UND from its third straight series sweep at home. It was also just UND's second loss (10-2-1) in its last 13 games.

Blais won NCAA titles at UND in 1997 and 2000 as a head coach and a couple more as an assistant coach under Gino Gasparini in the 1980s. He remains very popular in Grand Forks, so his dismissal from the game shocked most of the fans.

Omaha had taken the first four penalties of the game in the first period, but took a 1-0 lead on Tanner Lane's goal to cap a 3-on-1 rush at 12:24. Blais was tossed at 17:07 after the bench minor was called on the Mavericks with Blais ejected for his reaction to that call.

UND tied it at 19:52 of the first period on Derek Rodwell's rebound goal when left all alone in front of the net. But after UND's spurt to start the second period, Archibald and company took charge to salvage a series split. He had a four-point game with an assist to go with his hat trick.

Linemates Zombo (1G, 2A) and Jake Guentzel (2A) contributed to the nine-point night for Omaha's top line.

"We played 30 minutes, that's about all the positives to say,'' said UND assistant captain Stephane Pattyn. "The first period was a good hard-fought period for both teams. We came out real hard the first 10 minutes of the second and got that lead. I don't know, our team just kind of let go.''

UND was 0-6 on the power play with just three shots on goal. Over the last nine games, UND is converting at just 7.9 percent (3-38) on the power play.

"At the end of the day, we didn't play hard enough I thought and work hard enough on pucks on our power play," said Pattyn.

UND coach Dave Hakstol put it this way: "We were poor defensively,'' he said. "In all aspects without the puck tonight, we were poor.''

Hakstol expected a push-back from UND after Omaha took the lead away.

"We didn't respond,'' he said. "We build the two-goal lead, and gave up a tough goal and the tying goal was a bounce off a shin pad. That's where our team has a history of responding. Tonight, we didn't respond in the right way.''

Omaha (11-13-2/8-6-2) outshot UND 35-26, including 29-18 over the last two periods.

UND notes: UNO's rally marked UND's first loss in four years when leading by two goals. The last time it happend was a 4-2 loss to Denver in January 2010 ... Archibald, Zombo and Lane, all of Omaha, were named the three stars of the game by the media ... Connor Gaarder led UND in shots on goal with 5, followed by Rodwell with 4 ... Archibald's 5 shots led the Mavericks, and 3 found the net ... UND lost the faceoff battle 36-29 though Rocco Grimaldi won 14 of 21 ... The game drew a sellout of 11,930.

Virg Foss covered UND hockey for 35 seasons for the Grand Forks Herald until his retirement in 2005. He now reports on UND home games exclusively for UNDsports.com.