In less than four short minutes on Friday, Colorado College saw its hopes of a hard-earned victory turn into a nightmarish defeat.

The University of North Dakota made the big plays at the end of the game and stole a 3-2 overtime triumph at the World Arena that all but ended the Tigers' dream for a home-ice playoff berth.

Matt Frattin's goal at 2:09 of the extra session, set up by a beautiful pass from Brad Malone, completed a comeback in which the Fighting Sioux tied the contest on a tally by Malone with just 1:42 left in regulation.

The loss dropped CC into sixth place in the league standings, two points behind North Dakota and only one ahead of seventh-place Minnesota with three games remaining in the regular season. In suffering their third consecutive setback, the Tigers dropped to 17-13-3 overall and 11-11-3 in league play. While they play first-place Denver next weekend, UND takes on last-place Michigan Tech.

Frattin's game winner spoiled a pair of stellar performances by Colorado College's Joe Howe and Nate Prosser. Freshman goaltender Howe, who faced 42 shots, stopped 38 of the first 39 to give his team a chance of winning for the first time since Feb. 6. Senior defenseman Prosser scored CC's first goal and assisted on the second by senior winger Addison DeBoer, a deflection which gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead at 2:44 of the third period.

Evan Trupp, who combined with Frattin to set up Malone's red lighter, also assisted on freshman Danny Kristo's power-play goal that put the Sioux ahead 1-0 at 5:25 of the opening frame.

Colorado College finally got on the scoreboard at 13:06 of the middle period, just two seconds after successfully killing a penalty, when Matt Overman chased down a long clearing pass from Bill Sweatt and feathered a goalmouth pass to Prosser.