Colorado College and North Dakota battled to a 0-0 tie Saturday night at Robson Arena and Tyler Kleven scored the only goal in the shootout to give the Fighting Hawks the extra point in the standings.
 
CC's Matt Vernon and UND's Drew DeRidder each finished with 26 saves in the 65 minutes of regulation and overtime. This marks the second 0-0 game ever in Colorado College history and Vernon, who started tonight's game in place of the injured Kaidan Mbereko, is responsible for both. The other came last year at Minnesota Duluth. This was Vernon's third career shutout and second this season (8-0 over Air Force on Oct. 28).
 
North Dakota (14-13-6, 8-10-4 NCHC) collected four of a possible six points this weekend and leads the Tigers (10-19-3, 6-13-3) by three points in the race for sixth place in the league standings with two games remaining.
 
Ryan Beck, Hunter McKown and Noah Serdachny each had his shootout attempt saved by DeRidder, while Vernon made a great save on Riese Gaber, then Jackson Blake did not get a shot off before Kleven scored.
 
Vernon, whose last start came on Dec. 31 against Princeton, made some spectacular saves to preserve the shutout, including one on Dylan James to thwart a 3-on-1 shorthanded rush by North Dakota nearly three minutes into the second period. Mark Senden rang a shot off the pipe behind Vernon three minutes later.
 
In the third period, DeRidder stoned CC's Tyler Coffey on a clean breakaway attempt at the 7:40 mark and Vernon made another tremendous stop on Ethan Frisch with 21.6 seconds remaining in overtime.
 
For the second straight night, the Tigers held the nation's leading power-play unit scoreless on four opportunities and allowed just four shots playing a man down.
 
Colorado College wraps up the regular season next weekend with a home-and-home series against Denver, which won the league title and the Penrose Cup Saturday night at Western Michigan.
 
Friday's game at Magness Arena in Denver is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m., and will be televised on CBS Sports Network. Saturday's game will be Senior Night at Ed Robson Arena, beginning at 6 p.m., and broadcast on AT&T SportsNet.