This Week
The No. 11/12 Omaha hockey team begins its quest for a championship this weekend when it faces Denver in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff Quarterfinals on Saturday, March 13. Game time is 2:37 p.m. from Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, N.D., the host site for the entirety of the playoffs.
The Teams
Omaha is 14-9-1 overall and finished the regular season 14-9-1-4-0 (1) in the NCHC, good for fourth place. The Mavericks finished the regular season with a 3-2 overtime win at North Dakota on March 5, halting a three-game losing streak. All time, Omaha is 11-32-5 against Denver. The two teams split the four-game season series, 2-2-0, with each team winning once on the road.
This will be the first neutral-site game between the two schools. The Mavericks are 6-3-1 in neutral site play this year with all games having been played in the NCHC Pod at Baxter Arena. UNO is 5-5-0 in its last 10 games.
Denver is 9-12-1 overall and finished 9-12-1-0-2 (1) in the conference, putting it in fifth place. The Pioneers could not play their final two games due to COVID-19 protocols so their positioning was determined by calculating points per game. DU edged Western Michigan by .034 points. Denver has not played since a home-and-home series with Colorado College on Feb. 25 and 27. The Pioneers have won two straight, are 3-6-1 at neutral sites this year and 5-5-0 in their last 10 games.
The Coaches
Mike Gabinet is in his fourth season as head coach of the Mavericks, posting a 54-67-11 record all-time at his alma mater. The 2004 graduate of Omaha served as an associate head coach during the 2016-17 season before being elevated to the head coach position in 2017-18.
Gabinet returned to Omaha after four seasons at NAIT in Edmonton, Alberta, the last as its head coach. That season, he led the Ooks to a 36-0-0 record and the ACAC Championship. He was named the conference Coach of the Year and became the first rookie head coach in Canadian college hockey to guide his team to an undefeated record.
Gabinet, a standout defenseman for the Mavericks from 2000-04, is assisted by
Dave Noel-Bernier (Omaha, 2001) and
Paul Jerrard (Lake Superior State, 1987).
David Carle is in his third season as Denver's head coach. The 2012 graduate of DU is 54-33-12 during his time leading the Pioneers. He is assisted by Tavis MacMillan (Alaska, 1994) and Dallas Ferguson (Alaska, 1996).
Media
All Omaha games can be heard live on 1180 The Zone. Donny Baarns will have the play-by-play, and Terry Leahy provides analysis. Coverage begins with the First National Bank Pre-Game Show.
Streaming video is available on NCHC.tv. Live audio and stat links are available at OMavs.com.
Up Next
A win against the Pioneers would move the Mavericks into the Frozen Faceoff semifinals for the first time since they joined the NCHC in 2013-14. The game will be played on Monday, March 15 with game time either 3:06 p.m. or 8:06 p.m.
Briefly
- Senior Kevin Conley, junior Taylor Ward and sophomore Brandon Scanlin led the team in scoring last week at North Dakota with two points each. Conley and Ward had a goal and an assist each with Ward's goal standing up as the game-winner. Scanlin had two assists.
- The win was the Mavericks' fourth overtime victory of the season to lead the NCHC and tie them with Penn State for first nationally.
- Omaha was the only team to beat North Dakota at home this season and the only team to beat it at home in the last two seasons.
- The Mavericks snapped a three-game losing streak with the win at UND. It was their longest losing streak of the season.
- Sophomore Joey Abate is second in the nation and first in the NCHC with 59 penalty minutes this season.
- Eleven of the Mavericks' 14 wins have come when scoring the first goal of the game. They have lost just once when scoring first this season.
- The Mavericks are 8-1-0 in one-goal games this season.
- Omaha has given up an NCHC-high five shorthanded goals this season. Two have been scored into an empty net.
Series History: Omaha vs. Denver
Let's try this again. Omaha and Denver were due to face each other in the NCHC Quarterfinals in 2019-20, but that series, like all the others, was scrubbed by the COVID-19 pandemic. That makes this, officially, the third quarterfinal meeting between the two schools in the NCHC playoffs.
The Mavericks are 1-4 against DU in the postseason, having lost a three-game series in Omaha in 2013-14 and then losing in two games at Denver in 2015-16. The latter series was punctuated by a double overtime game in the clincher, a game that stands as the third-longest in UNO history.
The Pioneers own a 32-11-5 lead in the all-time series and had gone 19 straight games without a loss to the Mavericks dating back to January of 2015. That run of luck ended when Omaha won 5-2 at Baxter Arena on Jan. 24. (See full game results on page 6.)
In four games this season,
Taylor Ward led the Mavericks in scoring against Denver with three goals and two assists for five points while
Chayse Primeau (1-3-4) had four points. Four others managed three points.
Ward leads all current Mavericks in career scoring against DU with five goals and three assists for eight points in 10 games.
Tyler Weiss is next with a goal and five assists for six points over the same stretch. Sophomore
Isaiah Saville has been in net for the last six meetings, going 2-2-2 with a 2.59 goals-against average and a .928 save percentage.
A Few Playoff Facts
The Mavericks are embarking on their 21st conference playoffs this weekend. They have posted an all-time record of 23-40 including a mark of 2-12 in the NCHC. Of those 14 NCHC games, six went to overtime including two that reached double overtime.
As with all other life on the planet, this year's NCHC Playoffs have been altered by the COVID-19 pandemic. This will mark the first year the postseason has been staged with all games at a neutral site in a single elimination format. A win in the quarterfinals would advance Omaha to the semifinals and give the Mavericks their first neutral site conference playoff game beyond the quarterfinals since March 17, 2005 when they lost to Michigan State 5-0 at Joe Louis Arena in the CCHA Super Six.
