GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- It's a rarity when a hockey team's No. 3 goalie gets credited with the victory in a game and in one where the most penalized player on the ice scores the winning goal.

That's what happened in front of a sellout crowd of 11,634 at Ralph Engelstad Arena Saturday night as North Dakota opened its season with a 3-2 exhibition victory over the University of Manitoba Bisons.

Senior goalie Ryan "Bob" Anderson gave up two goals on the five shots he faced in just over 11 minutes of action coming in cold off the bench with 8 minutes left in the third period. Yet he got the win when senior center Rhett Gardner buried a power-play rebound at 3:03 of overtime after being called for four minor penalties earlier in the game.

Gardner was hauled down on a scoring chance in overtime to set up the power play, then knocked home the rebound off a shot by freshman Jasper Weatherby on the ensuing power play.

With that, the Fighting Hawks got the win and Anderson, from Roseau, Minn., got the game puck.

"Those two goals he let in there, our guys felt it,'' UND coach Brad Berry said. "They love Bob, and I'm glad we had a chance to win the game for him. He's an outstanding person, and we wanted to give him an opportunity here early in the season. We don't regret any minute of it.''

Thanks to a sensational showing by Manitoba goalie Byron Spriggs (52 saves), UND struggled for offense despite overwhelming control of the puck and outshooting the Bisons 55-9 for the game. 

Anderson couldn't be faulted for the two goals he allowed. The first came on a rebound by defenseman Thomas Lenchyschyn and the second on a breakaway by Jonah Wasylak late in the third period.

"For him to get the win is awesome,'' UND senior center Nick Jones said. "He's so respected in the locker room.''

UND built a 2-0 lead going into the third period on a power-play rebound goal by Grant Mismash at 17:53 of the first period and a wrister by Dixon Bowen at 3:10 of the second period after he cruised down the center slot untouched.

UND's top two goalies, sophomore Peter Thome and freshman Adam Scheel, faced just four shots combined and allowed zero goals in the nearly 51 minutes they played, an encouraging sign for the season in replacing the graduated Cam Johnson.

But the thunder by the Bisons tied the game late, setting up Gardner for his chance at redemption for his quartet of penalties.

"He's one of the leaders of our team, he wears a letter (assistant captain),'' Berry said of Gardner. "It's one of those things, we have to make sure he's on the ice and not in the penalty box. And we'll address that.''

Overall, Berry was pleased with his team. "I thought we did a lot of good things for our first game,'' he said. "And saying that, we've got to get back to work Monday and try to get better in a few areas.''

UND converted just 2 of 9 on the power play, but did throw 16 shots at Spriggs with the man advantaged and did not allow Manitoba a single shot on net on its four chances with a man advantage.

"I thought we accomplished a lot tonight,'' Berry said. "We didn't accomplish a lot against that goaltender tonight, I guess. We did a lot of good things for our first game.''

The 55 shots were nice, but not the quality overall that he'd like to see, Gardner said. "I thought a lot of it was from the perimeter. We can get a better net-front. He (Spriggs) was good down low, so you've got to bear down in the crease and get pucks up in the net. We had a lot of chances, thought.''

Defenseman Colton Poolman took a positive view of the performance. "It's early on, guys are still feeling where there spots are, and you kind of expect the power play to be a little sloppy,'' Poolman said. "That's an area I think we've got to improve upon.''

UND will swing into games that count next weekend, with a home-and-home series with the Bemidji State Beavers, beginning with the Friday contest in Bemidji before next Saturday's rematch at the Ralph.

Game notes: Spriggs, Mismash and Bowaen were named the game's three stars by the media, in that order . . . Jones led UND in shots on goal with 7,  followed by Mismash and defenseman Hayden Shaw with 6 . . . Through two periods, UND had a 32-3 edge in shots on goal . . . UND had a 34-20 faceoff edge, led by Jones (13 of 20) and Gardner (12 of 20).