This Week
    Omaha continues its three-week stretch of home games to end the regular season as it plays host to No. 3 Denver in its penultimate series at Baxter Arena at 7:07 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. 

The Teams
    Omaha sits one point out of fifth place in the NCHC standings with four games to play after sweeping then-No. 8 St. Cloud State at Baxter Arena last weekend in one of its best efforts of the season. The Mavericks still have an outside chance of earning home ice in the upcoming playoffs but need to win their way there.
    Denver, the top scoring team in the country at 4.53 goals per game, enters the week a point behind North Dakota atop the NCHC standings. The third-ranked Pioneers split games with Western Michigan in a Top 10 showdown last weekend in Kalamazoo, Mich., which knocked DU out of first place in the league.

The Coaches
    Mike Gabinet is in his fifth season as head coach of the Maverick and has posted a 73-82-11 record at his alma mater. The 2004 Omaha graduate 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 the North Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) in Edmonton, Alberta, the last as its head coach. That season, he led the Ooks to a 36-0-0 record and the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference 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 (Denver, 2012) became the youngest head coach in college hockey when he took over the DU program at age 28 in 2018. He was an assistant for the Pioneers before, helping them to the 2017 NCAA title.

Media
    Both games can be heard live on 1180 The Zone. Casey Roehl will handle the play-by-play duties while Terry Leahy provides analysis. Coverage begins with the FNBO Pregame Show. 
    Live video is available on NCHC.tv while audio and stat links are available at OMavs.com.

Series History: Omaha vs. Denver
    The Omaha-Denver series dates back to the early days of Maverick hockey. The Pioneers were the fourth
team Omaha played in its inaugural season in 1997, and the Mavericks swept their series with Denver.
    It was a rare weekend of success as the Pioneers have dominated the all-time series between the two
teams. Omaha's 5-2 home win over Denver last January ended a 19-game winless streak against DU that lasted five years. The Mavericks also won in overtime at DU last February, their first win in Denver since 2013.
    The Pioneers swept Omaha in their first series this season in Denver, winning 5-2 on Friday and 4-0 on Saturday in mid-January.