This Week
      Start spreading the news! The Mavericks are heading to East Meadow, New York for a two-game series with the Long Island University Sharks.

The Teams
      The Mavericks are coming off of a 1-1 weekend against the Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks. Omaha battled back from a 2-0 deficit on Friday night to force overtime but ultimately fell to the Nanooks in the extra frame, 2-3. The Mavericks returned the favor on Sunday afternoon by besting Alaska in overtime to come out on top, 3-2.
      Long Island enters this weekend 1-4-1 on the season. They're currently on a four-game winless skid and were swept by Michigan State last weekend in East Lansing.

Last Time Out
      The Mavericks skated to a series sweep over the Sharks last season at Baxter Arena. The Mavericks outscored LIU 13-1 on the weekend.

The Coaches
      Mike Gabinet is entering his sixth season as head coach of the Mavericks, posting a 77-89-12 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).
      Brett Riley is in his fourth season as head coach at Long Island.  The 2014 graduate of Hobart is 14-35-4 with the Sharks.  He is assisted by Will Messa and Rob Riley.

New Kids On The Block
      The Mavericks welcome 12 newcomers to the roster this year. The list of newcomers is made up of 10 freshmen, senior goaltender transfer Jake Kucharski (AIC) and graduate student Jake Pivonka (Notre Dame). Position breakdown of the freshmen goes as follows ... Forwards: Ray Fust (Waterloo - USHL), Jacob Slipec (Surrey - BCHL), Cam Mitchell (Omaha - USHL), Michael Abgrall (Surrey - BCHL), Tyler Rollwagen (Fargo - USHL) ... Defensemen: Joaquim Lemay (Lincoln - USHL), Griffin Ludtke (Sioux City - USHL), Jacob Guevin (Muskegon - USHL) ... Goaltenders: Simon Latkoczy (Madison - USHL) and Raythan Robbins (Anchorage - NAHL).

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".

All-Time vs. Long Island
      The Mavericks and Sharks met for the first time ever last season. Omaha swept LIU beating them 6-0 in the series opener and 7-1 the following night.

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 ESPN+.

Up Next
      The Mavericks begin the gauntlet that is NCHC conference play. They'll kickoff league play at home against conference rival, the North Dakota Fighting Hawks.

Jack Attack
      Senior forward Jack Randl currently leads all the NCAA in goals (8) and goals per game (1.33). Randl has recorded a goal in 5 of the Mavericks 6 games. He is the first player in prgram history to score 8 goals in the first 6 games of a season. The previous record of 7 was held by Austin Ortega (15-16) and Brandon Scero (06-07). 4 of Randl's 6 games have been multi-point games.

Jack Attack II
      Randl is the 19th player in Omaha Hockey history to score a goal in four consecutive games. It's the 27th time it has happened in program history. Randl is the third player in school history to score a goal in the first four games of the season. The only other players to score goals in the first four games of the season are Stanley Cup winner Jake Guentzel (2014-15) and Matt Ambroz (2010-11).

Among The Conference Leaders
      Randl joins North Dakota's Chris Jandric (1-9-10) and St. Cloud State's Grant Cruikshank (6-4-10) at the top of the NCHC with 10 points.

Among The Conference Leaders II
      Omaha currently ranks second in the NCHC in power play percentage (.318) and second in faceoff winning percentage (.537). Those numbers rank 4th and 10th in the nation, respectively.

Veteran Presence
      12 of the 14 returning skating letterwinners have registered a point so far this season. Senior forward Jack Randl (8G, 2A), graduate student forward Tyler Weiss (2G, 4A), sophomore defenseman Davis Pennington (4A), junior forward Brock Bremer (1G, 1A), senior forward Nolan Sullivan (1G), junior forward Jimmy Glynn (1A), junior defenseman Nolan Krenzen (2A), junior forward Matt Miller (1G, 3A), sophomore forward Ty Mueller (1G, 4A), senior defenseman Kirby Proctor (1G, 2A), sophomore forward Cameron Berg (1G, 2A) and graduate student defenseman Jonny Tychonick (3A) 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 and a goal.

There's a First Time For Everything
      Rookie netminder Simon Latkoczy registered his first career victory last Sunday when the Mavericks defeated Alaska, 3-2 in OT. The Slovakian netminder stopped 19 of the 21 shots he faced.

Career Numbers
      Six Mavericks are looking to build off career-best numbers last season.
      Jimmy Glynn - Career highs for goals (5), assists (6) and points (11) in a season
      Nolan Krenzen - Career highs for goals (1), assists (5) and points (6) in a season
      Matt Miller - Career best in goals (10) for a season
      Kirby Proctor - Career highs for goals (5), assists (7) and points (12) in a season
      Jack Randl - Career highs for goals (9), assists (11) and points (20) in a season
      Tyler Weiss - Career highs for goals (8), assists (25) and points (33) in a season

Nearing Milestones
      Graduate Tyler Weiss is closing in on 100 career points. He currently sits at 95 points after grabbing two points last weekend against the Alaska. In 128 games with Omaha, Weiss has tallied 24 goals and 71 assists.

The Century Club
      Speaking of milestones, Nolan Sullivan and Kirby Proctor have both played in their 100th career games this season. Sullivan skated to the 100-game club against Lake State while Proctor reached the century club on Friday against Alaska.

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 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
      On Saturday Oct. 15, 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.  

Draft Picks
      This season, Omaha has six players who have been chosen in the NHL Entry Draft.  Freshman Jo Lemay (2021, r4, #119 - WSH), Sophomores Cam Berg (2021, r4, #125 - NYI) and Victor Mancini (2022, r5, #159 - NYR), Senior Jake Kucharski (2018, r7, #197 - CAR) along with Grad Transfers Jake Pivonka (2018, r4, #103 - NYI) and Jonny Tychonick (2018, r2, #48 - OTT)