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This Week
The No. 14/15 Omaha Mavericks make history this week by playing the school's first-ever outdoor game. The Mavs will host No. 7 North Dakota on Friday, Feb. 8 at 6:37 p.m. at the CenturyLink Center and then head outdoors to host UND on Saturday, Feb. 9 at 4:07 p.m. at TD Ameritrade Park, home of the NCAA Division I Men's College World Series.
The Teams
The Mavericks are 16-10-2 overall and 12-6-2 in the WCHA, putting them in second place, three points behind St. Cloud State. The Mavs are coming off a 4-3 win and a 2-1 overtime loss to Michigan Tech last weekend. The all-time series with North Dakota is tied 3-3-0 and is tied 1-1-0 in Omaha. The Mavericks are 9-4-1 at home this season and 5-4-1 in their last 10 games.
North Dakota recently completed a four-game home stand with a 1-1 tie and a 4-1 win over Wisconsin last weekend. UND is 14-8-6 overall and 9-5-6 in the WCHA putting it in a three-way tie with Minnesota and Denver for third place with 24 points. North Dakota is 5-5-1 on the road and 4-3-3 in its last 10 games.
Last Time Out
The Mavericks split their home series with Michigan Tech last weekend. On Friday, the Mavs built three two-goal leads and then hung on for a 4-3 win over the Huskies.
Johnnie Searfoss and
Ryan Walters scored in the first period to make it 2-0, but MTU got a goal from David Johnstone late in the first.
Andrej Sustr scored midway through the second to make it 3-1, but Tech got an early third period goal from Alex Petan to close the gap.
Dominic Zombo made it 4-2 on the power play at 12:19 before Tanner Kero scored a powerplay goal at 15:59. UNO killed two late penalties to earn the win.
On Saturday, David Johnstone broke a scoreless tie at 1:18 of the second period before
Josh Archibald evened the game at 17:34 of the middle period. Mikael Lickteig scored on the only shot in overtime, beating
John Faulkner at 2:56 to give the Huskies the 2-1 win and the split of the weekend series. UNO finished with a mark of 3-1-0 against MTU this season.
The Coaches
Dean Blais is in his fourth year as the head coach of the Mavericks, having led UNO to two 20-win campaigns in that time. The 1973 graduate of Minnesota has posted a career record of 333-175-47 (.642) and has guided the Mavericks to a mark of 71-60-16 (.537).
Blais is a two-time Spencer Penrose Memorial Award winner as the Division I coach of the year and a four-time winner of the WCHA's Coach of the Year Award. He spent 10 years as head coach at North Dakota where he led UND to national championships in 1997 and 2000. He is assisted by first-year assistant coaches
Steve Johnson and Troy Jutting who both have extensive coaching experience in the WCHA, Johnson as an assistant at St. Cloud State and Jutting as the head coach and an assistant at Minnesota State.
Dave Hakstol is in his ninth season at North Dakota. The 1996 UND grad is 227-114-36 at Grand Forks. He is assisted by Brad Berry and Dane Jackson.
Media
Friday's game will be televised nationally on NBC Sports Network. Dan Parkhurst and Ken Hodge will have the call. Saturday's game can be seen in the Omaha area on Cox Cable channel 2. Gary Sharp and former UNO standout David Brisson will be the announcers. Both games also can be heard live on 1180 The Zone 2.
Dave Ahlers will have the play-by-play, and Terry Leahy will have analysis for both games. Coverage begins with the First National Bank Pre-Game Show 30 minutes before game time. Streaming audio, video and live stats are available at OMavs.com.
Up Next For the Mavericks
The Mavericks make their longest road trip of the year, visiting Alaska Anchorage for games on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 15 and 16. Game times are 10:07 p.m. CT.
