CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, PA - The Dubuque Fighting Saints (0-0-1-0, 1 pt) fell 6-5 in an overtime-thriller to the USA NTDP U18 (1-0-0-0, 2 pts) on Saturday afternoon.

The season-opener featured everything from goals in quick-succession to an overtime-goal that was disallowed, but not before USA celebrated and left the ice for the locker room. 

After a Brodie Ziemer breakaway goal was disallowed, Ziemer was awarded a penalty shot 1:28 into overtime. Saints goaltender Kevin Reidler made the save with his left leg. It was one of 31 saves he made in his USHL debut. Despite those 31 saves from Reidler, Dubuque was led by its offense on Saturday. The Saints' offensive depth was on display in the very first game of the season, carrying the team's potent offense from the preseason right into the regular season. 

In the overtime loss, Dubuque scored five goals from five different goal scorers. Four of those scorers netted their first-career goals in the game. Chase LaPinta, Andrew King,  Michael Barron and Colin Frank all found twine for the first time. Second-year defenseman Jayden Jubenvill was the other goal scorer for Dubuque.

After going ahead with LaPinta's goal early in the second to break a scoreless stalemate, the Saints gave up the lead just 26 seconds later on a Cole Eiserman tally. From there, Dubuque capitalized on a couple misplays from Team USA to score twice in the final five of the middle period and take a 3-1 lead into the third. Team USA's answer came in a big way to start the third, scoring three goals in the first half of the period. After the last of those three, Saints head coach Kirk MacDonald called a time-out to give his team a chance to regroup.

Nineteen seconds later, his team responded with Barron's goal to tie the game at 9:54 of the third. Minutes later, Joona Väisänen found Frank on the back-door to give the Saints a 5-4 lead back.

With the net empty, Team USA found a tying goal with 1:49 left in regulation to force overtime. After the disallowed goal, Logan Hensler slapped a puck past Reidler to win the game for Team USA.

The Fighting Saints are back in action on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. CST to take on the Muskegon Lumberjacks. The game can be seen on FloHockey and heard on Eagle 102.3.