This Week
The Mavericks return home to take on the Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks in a Friday/Sunday series to continue non-conference play. Friday's game will drop the puck at 7:07 P.M. while Sunday's tilt will be an afternoon puck drop at 2:00 P.M.

The Teams
    The Mavericks are coming off of a 1-0-1 weekend against the Lake Superior State Lakers. They sunk the Lakers in the series opener 3-1 and then battled all the way back from a 4-0 1st period deficit on Saturday night to secure a tie with Lake State. 
    Alaska Fairbanks enters this weekend 2-3-1 on the season. They're coming off of a series split last weekend with St. Thomas. The Nanooks took the series opener 4-2 and then fell 3-2 in overtime the next night.

Last Time Out
    The Mavericks and the Nanooks met four times last season. One series at Baxter and the other at Carlson Arena in Fairbanks. Omaha won all four meetings with Alaska Fairbanks. They outscored the Nanooks 17-7 in those four meetings.

The Coaches
    Mike Gabinet is entering his sixth season as head coach of the Mavericks, posting a 76-88-12 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 Associate Head Coach Dave Noel-Bernier (Omaha, 2001) and Paul Jerrard (Lake Superior State, 1987).
    Erik Largen is in his sixth season as head coach at Alaska Fairbanks.  The 2010 graduate of Alaska Fairbanks is 34-64-14 with the Nanooks.  He is assisted by Chris Brown (Associate HC) and Lenny Hofmann.

This Is Your Captain Speaking
    No stranger to wearing a leadership letter on his chest, Senior forward Nolan Sullivan will don the "C" for the Mavericks this season. He will be joined be senior and junior forwards Jack Randl and Matt Miller as they make their captaincy debut wearing the alternate captain "A".
    Senior Jack Randl currently leads all Maverick skaters with 7 points in four games played. Miller has a pair of assists while Sullivan buried a goal against the Purple Eagles two weeks ago.

All-Time vs. Alaska
    The Mavericks and Nanooks have met 55 total times dating back to their first meeting in 1999. Alaska holds a slight all-time series lead over Omaha at 23-21-11. When the game is played in Omaha, the Mavericks are 12-10-5 against the Nanooks and when played in Alaska, the Nanooks hold a 13-9-6 series lead over Omaha.

Media
    Both games can be heard live on AM 1290.  Casey Roehl will have the play-by-play, Terry Leahy provides analysis.  Coverage begins 30 minutes before game time with the First National Bank Pre-Game Show. You can also stream the game on NCHC.tv.

Up Next
    The Mavericks head to Long Island to take on the Long Island Sharks to close out their October non-conference schedule. They'll have one more non-conference opponent for the regular season in St. Lawrence on New Years Eve weekend.

Jack Attack
    Senior forward Jack Randl is currently on 4-game point streak. He leads the Mavericks with 7 points (5G, 2A) on the season. Randl has scored a goal in every game for Omaha this season. He has recorded a multi-point game in three of the Mavericks four games.

Veteran Presence 
    12 of the 14 returning skating letterwinners have registered a point so far this season. Senior forward Jack Randl (5G, 2A), graduate student forward Tyler Weiss (2G, 2A), sophomore defenseman Davis Pennington (2A), junior forward Brock Bremer (1G), senior forward Nolan Sullivan (1G), junior forward Jimmy Glynn (1A), junior defenseman Nolan Krenzen (1A), junior forward Matt Miller (2A), sophomore forward Ty Mueller (1G, 2A), senior defenseman Kirby Proctor (1G, 1A), sophomore forward Cameron Berg (1G, 3A) and graduate student defenseman Jonny Tychonick (2A) have all found the scoresheet so far this season. Grad transfer and former Notre Dame captain, Jake Pivonka, has also landed on the scoresheet with a pair of assists.

There's a First Time For Everything
    Freshman forward Tyler Rollwagen scored his first career NCAA goal on Saturday night when he got in front of and tipped a Jacob Guevin shot to pull Omaha within in two of the Lakers
    On the same goal, freshman blueliner Jo Lemay registered the secondary assist. The tally would be his first career NCAA point as well.

Nearing Milestones
    Graduate Tyler Weiss is closing in on 100 career points. He currently sits at 93 points after grabbing three points last weekend against the Niagara Purple Eagles and scoring the game winning goal in the series opener against Lake State. In 124 games with Omaha, Weiss has tallied 24 goals and 69 assists.

The Century Club
    Speaking of milestones, Nolan Sullivan played in his 100th career game last Saturday night against Lake Superior State.  This Friday against Alaska Fairbanks, senior blueliner Kirby Proctor will also join the century club playing in his 100th collegiate game.
        
Weekly Awards
    Carolina Hurricanes draft Jake Kucharski is the first Maverick this season to earn NCHC weekly honors. Kucharski was named the Week 3 NCHC Goaltender of the Week for performance last weekend against Lake Superior State. The senior netminder went 1-0-1 and posted a .967 save % with 0.54 GAA for the weekend.

Making History
    Last Saturday night, the Mavericks became the first team in program history to come back from four goals down after the first period to tie the game. It's just the second time in Maverick history, Omaha has erased a four goal deficit to tie the game.