COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The Omaha hockey team has been picked to finish fourth in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference in 2015-16 as voted on by the media in the annual preseason poll released today.

The Mavericks garnered 148 points in the voting but no first-place votes.  They edged out Miami which was fifth in the voting of news media who cover the conference with 142 points and two first-place votes.

The ranking is the highest for UNO in any of the polls conducted since the NCHC began in 2013.  The Mavericks were picked to finish sixth last year and eighth in the inaugural season.  In both cases, the Mavericks exceeded expectations by finishing third.

Minnesota Duluth was picked to win the NCHC, receiving 208 points and 17 first-place votes.  Denver was second with 187 points and seven first-place votes, and North Dakota was third with 183 points and four first-place votes.  The full poll appears below.

Last season, UNO was 20-13-6 and made its first-ever appearance in the Frozen Four.  The Mavericks were 12-8-4-3 in the NCHC.

This season, UNO returns 16 players from last year's team including its top 10 scorers.  Juniors Jake Guentzel (39 points) and Austin Ortega (37) were UNO's top two scorers in 2014-15.  Ortega set an NCAA record with 11 game-winning goals.

This season, the Mavericks feature nine NHL draft picks, the most ever in one season.

Head coach Dean Blais and junior goaltender Kirk Thompson will represent the Mavericks at the 2015 NCHC Media Day in Minneapolis, Minn. on Thursday, Sept. 24.  

In addition to a variety of interviews in the afternoon, each student-athlete will “takeover Twitter” (@TheNCHC) and be on Periscope answering fan questions for 15 minutes between 10 a.m. and noon CT. Fans can begin submitting questions leading up to Media Day on Twitter by using each player's unique hashtag.  Thompson will take over Twitter from 10:15-10:30 a.m. CT at the hashtag #NCHCAskKirk.

The Mavericks open the season at Minnesota State on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 9-10.

2015 NCHC Preseason Poll