Weekly Release
CCHA Weekly Release
This Week: The 19th-ranked UNO hockey team returns home for a post-Thanksgiving series with the Western Michigan Broncos on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 27 and 28. Friday's game begins at 7:35 p.m., and Saturday's contest will face off at 7:05 p.m.
Last Week: The Mavericks dropped both ends of a two-game series at Northern Michigan. On Friday, Nov. 20, UNO lost 5-1. #
John Kemp# scored an early powerplay goal, but the Wildcats reeled off five unanswered tallies to pick up their first home win of the year. In the rematch on Saturday, UNO had a 2-0 lead after the first period but surrendered three in the second and went to the intermission down, 3-2. #
Alex Hudson# tied the game early in the third period but Northern retook the lead 40 seconds later and got two more goals to win, 6-3. #
Joey Martin and Jeric Agosta# also scored for UNO.
The Records: The Mavericks are 5-4-3 this season and 2-4-2-1 in the CCHA. They are tied for ninth place in the league with Michigan. The Broncos are 5-5-2 overall and 1-5-2-1 in the conference, good for 12th place.
The Series: UNO is 12-8-6 all-time against Western Michigan and 6-4-2 all-time against the Broncos at home. Last season, the two teams split four games right down the middle. Each team won in regulation and in a shootout. The home team did not win a game in last year's series. UNO has more ties with Western Michigan than against any other CCHA team except Alaska (11).
The Coaches: The 2009-2010 season marks a new era for Nebraska-Omaha as #
Dean Blais# takes over as the head coach.
Mike Kemp, the only coach in the program's history, was promoted to Associate Athletic Director in May of 2009. Blais brings an impressive resume to Omaha. He led the University of North Dakota to national titles in 1997 and 2000. He won five WCHA regular season titles with UND and two playoff championships. He is a two-time winner of the Spencer Penrose Memorial Award given to Division I hockey's top coach. The native of International Falls, Minn. has a career record of 267-119-36. Blais is assisted by former Omaha Lancer head coach and first-year associate head coach Mike Hastings and third-year assistant coach Nick Fohr.
Jim Culhane is in his tenth year as head coach at Western Michigan. He is 147-167-39 all-time at his alma mater ('87).
Media: Both games will be broadcast live on “The Voice of Omaha's Team”, KVNO 90.7 FM.
Dave Ahlers will call the action, and Terry Leahy will provide analysis. Coverage begins 20 minutes before the face-off. Live audio is available at
kvno.org and live stats at omavs.com.
Coming Up: The Mavericks begin a stretch of five straight road games when they venture to Ferris State for games on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 4 and 5. Friday's game starts at 6:05 p.m. CT and Saturday's game at 4:05 p.m. CT.
