Weekly Release
This Week
The fourth-ranked University of Nebraska at Omaha will welcome the No. 7/8 North Dakota Fighting Sioux to Omaha for the first two of four meetings this season. The games will be the first ever meetings between the two schools. Friday's game begins at 7:37 p.m., and Saturday's starts at 7:07 p.m. from Qwest Center Omaha. This will be the first time the Mavericks have played in a game against another team also ranked in the top 10 in the nation.
The Teams
The Mavericks begin the week with a record of 8-1-1 overall and a mark of 5-0-1 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, good for third place, just a point behind the Fighting Sioux who have played two more games. The Mavericks are just two points behind league-leading Minnesota Duluth which also has played two more WCHA games. North Dakota comes to Omaha with a record of 7-4-1 overall and a mark of 6-2-0 in the WCHA. The Fighting Sioux are coming off a sweep of two games at Wisconsin last weekend. They won 1-0 on Friday and prevailed 4-2 on Saturday.
Last Week
The Mavericks picked up a win and a tie in a trip to St. Cloud State last weekend. On Friday, they earned their second shutout of the season with a 3-0 blanking of the Huskies. Brock Montpetit, #Terry Broadhurst and Ryan Walters# all scored, and #John Faulkner# picked up his second career shutout, stopping all 23 shots he faced including several tough bids in the late going of the second period. The following night, the Mavericks battled back from 1-0 and 3-1 deficits to take a 4-3 lead in the third period on goals by Matt White and Walters. St. Cloud State tied the game with 1:04 to go on a tally by Travis Novak. Faulkner stopped 16 shots in the tie. #Zahn Raubenheimer and Matt Ambroz# also scored. UNO had two powerplay goals in 11 chances during the weekend while holding the Huskies to just one powerplay goal in 13 chances.
The Coaches
#Dean Blais# is in his second year as the head coach of the Mavericks. The 1973 graduate of Minnesota has posted a career record of 290-132-39 (.671) and has guided the Mavericks to a mark of 28-17-6 (.608) since coming to Omaha. Blais is a two-time Spencer Penrose Memorial Award winner as the Division I coach of the year. He spent 10 years as head coach at North Dakota where he led the Fighting Sioux to national championships in 1997 and 2000. He was also an assistant at UND for nine years, helping the Sioux to national championships in 1982 and 1987 while working for then head coach Gino Gasparini. He is assisted by second-year associate head coach Mike Hastings and first-year assistant coach Mike Guentzel.
Dave Hakstol is in his seventh year guiding North Dakota. The 1996 UND grad is 162-88-25 all-time at his alma mater, his first stop as a head coach. Last year, he led the Fighting Sioux to a record of 25-13-5 and a tie for fourth place in the WCHA with a mark of 15-10-3. He is assisted by Cary Eades and Dane Jackson.
Media
UNO hockey can be heard live on the “Voice of UNO Athletics”, KVNO, 90.7 FM. Dave Ahlers will call the play-by-play while Terry Leahy provides analysis for both games this weekend. Coverage begins 37 minutes before game time. Live audio, streaming video through America One and live stats are available at omavs.com.
Up Next For the Mavericks
UNO will have the next week off before returning to action on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 3 and 4 when they visit fellow WCHA newcoming Bemidji State for a pair of games at the Beavers' new Bemidji Regional Events Center. Friday's game starts at 7:37 p.m. while Saturday's game faces off at 7:07 p.m. This will mark UNO's third straight weekend against the three teams in its scheduling pod (St. Cloud State, North Dakota).
