A nightmare for goaltenders at both ends of the ice, Friday's series opener at Engelstad Arena would have no happy ending for Colorado College.

The University of North Dakota struck for the only red lighter of the third period, a power-play tally by Brock Nelson at the 11:54 mark, and held on for a 7-6 victory that dropped the No. 4-ranked Tigers to 1-3 on the road in WCHA play this season.

The teams meet again at 6:07 p.m. Saturday in Grand Forks, N.D.

CC, now 7-3 overall and 5-3 in league play, wasted Rylan Schwartz's second hat trtck of the season and another come-from-behind effort that turned a pair of two-goal deficits into a 6-5 lead midway through the game.

With their biggest offensive performance of the season, the Fighting Sioux improved to 5-7-1 overall and 3-6 in the WCHA, thanks to two goals and an assist apiece from Nelson and Danny Kristo.  

Kristo staked North Dakota to a 1-0 lead just 36 seconds into the contest. Carter Rowney scored the first of three UND power-play goals at 7:08 of the first period before Schwartz, who now has 10 goals in 2011-12, gave the Tigers a spark of hope with his first of three at 12:04.

It was Schwartz's third of the night that finally put Colorado College in front for the first time after the Sioux built cushions of 3-1 and 5-3. But first, the junior center knotted the contest at 5-5 with an unassisted marker just 16 seconds after team captain Nick Dineen pulled CC to within one at 7:41 of the middle stanza. He completed his hat trick at 10:54, converting on a power play and sending starting netminder Aaron Dell to the North Dakota bench in favor of Brad Eidsness.

By then, junior Joe Howe already had replaced sophomore Josh Thorimbert between the Tiger pipes following Nelson's first goal that made it 5-3 at 6:48 of the period. Despite stopping 11 of 13 Sioux shots the rest of the way, Howe took the loss. Thorimbert made 14 saves before leaving the game.

Scott Winkler scored once and added a pair of assists for CC, which also got two points apiece from Dineen (1g,1a), Gabe Guentzel (1g,1a) and Jaden Schwartz (2a).

Corban Knight helped set up three UND goals. Dell finished with 16 saves, Eidsness with 13.