Weekly Release
This Week
The 12th-ranked UNO Mavericks play their first WCHA playoff games against fellow league newcomer Bemidji State on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, if necessary, March 11-13. Friday's game begins at 7:37 p.m. while Saturday and Sunday's games will begin at 7:07 p.m. The two teams met twice during the regular season with the Beavers earning a 3-0-1 record against the Mavericks. They were 1-0-1 at the Qwest Center. UNO is 16-5 at home all-time in the playoffs including a mark of 12-1 at the Qwest.
The Teams
The Mavericks finished the regular season at 21-13-2 overall and 17-9-2 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. They finished in third place with 36 points, just one point behind second-place Denver and one ahead of fourth-place Minnesota Duluth. The Mavericks are coming off a split of two games at UMD last weekend. They are 13-4-1 at home this season. The Beavers tied Minnesota 3-3 before losing 3-2 in overtime to close out the regular season at home last weekend. They finished 10th in the WCHA with a mark of 8-15-5 and a record of 12-17-5 overall. BSU is 5-9-2 on the road this season.
Last Time Out
The Mavericks picked up their third straight series split last weekend at Minnesota Duluth. On Friday, the Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead just 2:38 into the game, but the Mavericks responded later with a goal by #Johnnie Searfoss off a feed from Terry Broadhurst#. But UMD retook the lead just 20 seconds later and stretched it's lead to 3-1 by the first intermission. The 'Dogs would get one more in the second period to win, 4-1. #John Faulkner# took the loss in net with 31 saves.
The following night, the Mavericks opened the scoring at 1:04 of the second period when Broadhurst tipped in a shot by #Andrej Sustr#. UNO doubled its lead 22 seconds later when #Brock Montpetit# tapped home the rebound of his own shot. UMD got one back, but Alex Hudson knocked in a pass from Eric Olimb to make it 3-1 after two. Matt Ambroz scored on the power play at 8:15 of the third period to make it 4-1 before the Bulldogs cut the lead to 4-2 just 2:30 later. Broadhurst squelched any chance at a comeback when he scored his second of the game at 13:27. Faulkner picked up 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 302-143-41 (.664) and has guided the Mavericks to a mark of 40-28-8 (.580) 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.
Tom Serratore is in his ninth season as the head coach at Bemidji State. The 1987 BSU graduate is 152-137-34 (.523) all time. He is assisted by Bert Gilling and Ted Belisle.
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 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
Should UNO win this weekend's first round playoff series, it will advance to the Red Barron WCHA Final Five which runs from Thursday through Saturday, March 17-19 at the XCel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. If both North Dakota and Denver also win their series, the Mavericks will play on Thursday. Otherwise, they will not play until Friday.
