MARQUETTE, Mich. - Senior Bennett Royer scored with 15 seconds remaining to give Michigan Tech a dramatic 4-3 overtime win over rival Northern Michigan in the regular season opener for both teams in the Superior Showcase Friday (Oct. 8) at the Berry Events Center.

"What a great way to start the season, the last 15 seconds, on the road, at Northern," said head coach Jamie Russell. "I was really pleased with how we handled adversity. Certainly not the way we would have scripted it down 2-0 10 minutes into the game. They tied it up late but we dug deep and had some chances and were able to bury it."

NMU scored first after capitalizing on its first powerplay opportunity of the evening with a goal by Justin Florek at 2:24 of the first period. Tyler Gron extended the Wildcat lead to 2-0 with an even strength goal four minutes later.

Royer kick started the Tech comeback scoring the first of two power play goals on a five-minute penalty by Northern. Freshman Milos Gordic and senior Eric Kattelus both assisted on the goal at 16:54 of the first.

Freshman Daniel Holmberg tied the game at 2-2 with his first career goal 32 seconds later. Senior Deron Cousens and sophomore Steven Seigo each recorded assists on the goal for their first points of the season.

Holmberg tallied his second point of the game with an assist on sophomore Anthony Schooley's goal at 1:33 of the second period to give the Huskies a 3-2 lead.

Northern applied strong offensive pressure in the third period firing 15 shots on goal. Andrew Cherniwchan scored the game-tying goal for NMU at 13:27 before Kattelus and sophomore Mikael Lickteig each recorded assists on Royer's game-winner in overtime.

Junior goalie Josh Robinson made 33 saves on 36 shots for his first win of the season for the Huskies.

Reid Ellingson finished with 25 saves on 29 shots in the Northern loss.

Tech finished 2-for-5 on the man-advantage compared to 1-for-5 for Northern.

Tech will close out the Superior Showcase at Lake Superior State Saturday (Oct. 9).