This Week
The No. 1/2 Omaha Mavericks open National Collegiate Hockey Conference play on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 30-31 when they take on Western Michigan.  Both games begin at 7 p.m. ET from Lawson Arena in Kalamazoo, Mich.

The Teams
The Mavericks are off to the best start in program history, posting a record of 6-0-0 through the first three weeks of the season.  They're coming off a sweep against Air Force in their home opener last weekend.  The Mavericks are already 4-0-0 on the road this season after non-conference sweeps at Minnesota State and Vermont.  Omaha is 18-10-6 all-time against Western Michigan and 9-5-4 vs. the Broncos in Kalamazoo.  Last year, the Mavericks also opened the NCHC schedule at Lawson Arena, winning both games.

Western Michigan is 2-2-1 so far this season, all of it in non-conference action.  The Broncos are coming off a pair of road losses last weekend, dropping 4-2 and 6-2 decisions at Clarkson of ECAC Hockey.  Both of their wins have come at home where they were 4-7-3 last season.

Last Time Out
The Mavericks opened their new on-campus home, Baxter Arena, with 4-2 and 4-1 wins over Air Force in the first meetings of the two teams since the 1998-99 season.  On Friday, the Mavericks jumped out to a 3-0 lead and held on in the third for the win.  Steven Spinner scored his first collegiate goal at 14:28 of the first to put the Mavericks in front.  Jake Randolph and Austin Ortega scored at opposite ends of the second period to make it 3-0.  Air Force sandwiched goals from Jordan Himley and Ben Kucera around another tally from Spinner in the third for the final score.  Kirk Thompson stopped 28 shots in the win.

The next night, the Mavericks put up another multiple goal lead and cruised to a 4-1 win.  Aaron Pearce scored at 7:54 of the first period, and Randolph and Ortega scored goals 2:17 apart late in the period to give UNO a 3-0 lead.  Jake Guentzel scored his second of the year midway through the second to make it 4-0 before the Falcons got a goal from Evan Okeley at 1:26 of the third to break up Evan Weninger's shutout bid.  Still, the freshman made 27 saves for his third win of the year.

The Coaches
Dean Blais is in his seventh year as the head coach of the Mavericks, having led UNO to three 20-win campaigns in that time.  The 1973 graduate of Minnesota has posted a record of 379-214-57 (.627) in his career as a head coach and has guided the Mavericks to a mark of 117-99-24 (.538).

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 coaches Troy Jutting and Alex Todd who both have extensive head coaching experience, Jutting at Minnesota State and Todd at Castleton (Vt.) State.

Andy Murray is in his fifth season as the head coach at Western Michigan.  The 1972 graduate of Brandon and long-time National Hockey League coach is 75-61-25 in his time at Kalamazoo.  He is assisted by Dave Shyiak and Ben Barr.

Media
Both games can be heard live on 1180 The Zone 2.  Dave Ahlers will have the play-by-play, and Terry Leahy will provide analysis for his 19th consecutive season.  Coverage begins 30 minutes before game time with the First National Bank Pre-Game Show.  Live video is available at NCHC.tv. while live audio and stats can be found at OMavs.com.

Up Next For The Mavericks
The Mavericks play their first NCHC games at home next Friday and Saturday, Nov. 6-7 when they host Minnesota Duluth.  Both games begin at 7:07 p.m. at Baxter Arena.