This Week
The No. 12 Omaha hockey team makes its fourth appearance in the NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship this week, facing No. 2 Minnesota of the Big Ten in the NCAA West Regional. The first-round matchup will begin at 9 p.m. CT from the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, Colo.
The Teams
Omaha enters the regional as the fourth seed, having put together a record of 14-10-1 overall. The Mavericks finished the regular season at 14-9-1-4-0 (1) in the NCHC, good for fourth place. They bowed out of the NCHC Playoffs with a 5-4 quarterfinal loss to Denver on March 13.
All time, Omaha is 3-4-0 against the Golden Gophers with six of those games coming during UNO's three-year stint in the WCHA. The Mavericks were 3-3-0 against UM in conference action. UNO is 6-4-1 in neutral site games this season - including 10 games in the NCHC Pod at Baxter Arena - and 5-5-0 in its last 10 games.
Minnesota is 23-6-0 overall this season and finished second in the Big Ten with a record of 16-6-0-0-0 (0). The Gophers claimed the league's playoff title with a 6-4 win over regular season champ Wisconsin on March 16. UM is 3-0-0 in neutral site action this season and 8-2-0 in its last 10 games.
The Coaches
Mike Gabinet is in his fourth season as head coach of the Mavericks, posting a 54-68-11 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).
Bob Motzko is in his third season as Minnesota's head coach. The 1987 graduate of St. Cloud State is 57-36-11 during his time leading the Gophers and 333-228-60 in his 16-year career that included 13 years at SCSU. He is assisted by Garrett Raboin (St. Cloud State, 2010) and Ben Gordon (Minnesota, 2008).
Media
Saturday's game will be televised live on ESPNU. Ben Holden will have the play-by-play, and Fred Pletsch will offer analysis. Should the Mavericks advance to Sunday's regional championship, the game will air on ESPN2.
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 15 minutes before puck drop.
Streaming video is available on ESPN+. Live audio and stat links are available at OMavs.com.
Up Next
If the Mavericks win on Saturday, they would advance to the West Regional championship to face either Minnesota State or Quinnipiac on Sunday, March 28 at 7 p.m. CT.
Briefly
- Junior Chayse Primeau leads the Mavericks with 23 points and is tied with Tyler Weiss and Brandon Scanlin for the team lead with 14 assists.
- Junior Taylor Ward leads the Mavericks with 11 goals.
- Senior Kevin Conley leads the team with four power play goals and is tied with sophomore Kirby Proctor for the team lead with three game-winning goals.
- Remarkably, of Proctor's four career goals, all are game winners.
- Sophomore Joey Abate leads the team and is second in the nation with 61 penalty minutes this season.
- Weiss leads the Mavericks with a +12 plus/minus rating.
- Senior Nate Knoepke started his collegiate career with Minnesota in 2017-18 but transfered to Omaha the following year.
- The Mavericks have nine players from Minnesota, the most from any state. (See breakdown on roster page).
- The Mavericks have seven players who have appeared in all 25 games this season: Jason Smallidge, Kirby Proctor, Nolan Sullivan, Chayse Primeau, Taylor Ward, Matt Miller and Tyler Weiss. Miller is the only freshman.
- The Mavericks have won four overtime games, leading the NCHC and tying them with Penn State and Army West Point for first nationally. They are 4-0-1 in OT this season and unbeaten in their last 11 overtime games (5-0-6).
- 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 (11-1-0).
- The Mavericks are 8-2-0 in one-goal games this season.
- Omaha has given up five shorthanded goals this season, tying them with Maine and Providence for third in the country. Two of the shorthanded goals allowed have been scored into an empty net.
The Mavericks in the NCAAs
The Mavericks are making their fourth NCAA Championship appearance in school history this weekend. Their last came in 2015 when they won the NCAA Midwest Regional and appeared in their first NCAA Frozen Four. All-time, Omaha is 2-3 in NCAA play including a record of 1-2 in the first round.
The Mavericks are the fourth seed in the West Regional, the second time they have been so ranked. The other came in their first NCAA appearance at the Northeast Regional in 2006. They were the third seed in the West Regional in 2011 and the second seed at the Midwest Regional in 2015.
In five prior NCAA games, the Mavericks have scored 13 goals and allowed 17. They have an 18.8 percent (3/16) success rate on the power play and have killed 73.7 percent (14/19) of the penalties against them.
This will be the Mavericks' first NCAA appearance under head coach
Mike Gabinet. Original head coach
Mike Kemp guided them to the NCAAs in 2006, and Dean Blais led them to the tournament in 2011 and 2015.
Series History: Omaha vs. Minnesota
It's been more than eight years since the Mavericks have faced off against Minnesota. For three years, the two teams were neighbors in the WCHA and in that time, they split the action, 3-3-0. In fact, the Mavericks earned their first WCHA victories in Minneapolis in their first two WCHA games, winning 5-4 and 4-2 in October of 2010. Five of the seven meetings have been decided by one goal with the last four ending with a 3-2 score. (See game results on page 6.)
The only Omaha players to ever have faced Minnesota are junior
Jonny Tychonick and sophomore
Jack Randl. Tychonick faced UM three times while with North Dakota from 2018-20 while Randl saw the Gophers once during his one season at Michigan in 2018-19. Head coach
Mike Gabinet also faced UM during his senior year in the consolation game of the Mutual of Omaha Stampede, a tournament in Omaha that ran for 11 seasons. The Gophers won that night, 7-3 on Oct. 11, 2003, in the first meeting between the two schools.
