Weekly Release
This Week
The 12th-ranked UNO Mavericks will play their final home series of the regular season when they host the No. 6 Denver Pioneers on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 25 and 26 at Qwest Center Omaha. Friday's game begins at 7:37 p.m., and Saturday's contest faces off at 7:07 p.m. The Mavericks will be looking to snap a long losing streak against Denver. The Pioneers have won seven straight meetings after dropping the first two games ever played between the two schools dating back to the first season of UNO hockey.
The Teams
The Mavericks are 19-11-2 overall and have forged a mark of 15-7-2 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, putting them in a tie with Minnesota Duluth for third place at 32 points. The Mavericks remain just one point behind second-place Denver and three back of league-leading North Dakota. UNO split a pair of games at Alaska Anchorage last weekend, losing the opener 3-2 before bouncing back for a 4-1 win. The Mavericks are 12-3-1 at home this season. The Pioneers are coming off a home split with Michigan Tech, losing the Friday game, 3-2 before rebounding for a 5-1 win on Saturday. They enter the weekend with a record of 19-8-5 overall and a 15-6-3 mark in the WCHA. Denver is 6-5-3 away from home this season.
Last Time Out
The Mavericks dropped its first-ever conference game with Alaska Anchorage, losing 3-2 last Friday night. Twice, the Mavericks battled back from one-goal deficits on tallies by Joey Martin and Alex Hudson. But UAA's Daniel Naslund scored off a netmouth scramble for the deciding goal. #John Faulkner# made 16 saves in the loss.
The following night, the Mavericks broke a scoreless tie in the second period with goals from Martin and Matt White. #Brock Montpetit# scored 52 seconds into the third period to make it 3-0 before UAA got one goal back on a power play at the 10-minute mark. #Johnnie Searfoss# iced the game with an empty-net goal. Faulkner got the win with 29 saves.
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 301-142-41 (.664) and has guided the Mavericks to a mark of 39-27-8 (.581) 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 is assisted by second-year associate head coach Mike Hastings and first-year assistant coach Mike Guentzel.
George Gwozdecky is in his 17th year at DU and his 22nd season at the Division I level. The 1977 graduate of Wisconsin is 392-235-55 (.615) at DU and 475-329-74 (.583) in Division I. He is assisted by Steve Miller and Derek Lalonde.
Media
Friday's game will be the third of three games televised live statewide on NET-1 and NET HD. Dave Ahlers will call the play-by-play while former UNO goaltender Kendall Sidoruk provides analysis, and Larry Punteney reports from rinkside. UNO hockey also can be heard live on the “Voice of UNO Athletics”, KVNO, 90.7 FM. Frank Adkisson will call the play-by-play on Friday while Ahlers will return on Saturday. Terry Leahy will provide analysis for both games. Coverage begins 37 minutes before game time. Live audio, streaming video and live stats are available at omavs.com.
Up Next For the Mavericks
UNO finishes the regular season on Friday and Saturday, March 4 and 5 at Minnesota Duluth. Both games begin at 7:07 p.m. from Amsoil Arena. The Mavericks then will host a first-round WCHA Playoff series at the Qwest Center on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (if necessary), March 11-13.
