The 12-9-1 Omaha Mavericks go wire-to-wire tonight to secure a 4-1 series opening victory over the Miami RedHawks.

It didn't take long for the Mavericks to get going tonight as Junior forward Matt Miller turned the red light on just 60 seconds into tonight's contest. Sophomore forward Ty Mueller fed Miller perfectly backdoor on a 2-on-1 odd man rush to open the goal scoring. Senior forward Jack Randl tallied the secondary assist. Miami would answer to tie the game at 13:06 of the 1st period but it would be the last time they would find the back of the net for the remainder of the evening.

Omaha took full control of tonight's game in the 2nd period. Junior Jimmy Glynn netted the game winning goal at 4:36 of the 2nd period when he cleaned up a rebound out front into a yawning Miami cage. Second year defenseman Victor Mancini fired a blistering snapshot on net that fell right in front of Glynn to tap in. Senior captain Nolan Sullivan had the secondary helper on the goal. At 8:52 of middle frame, Jake Pivonka quickly fired a Tyler Weiss pass by Miami netminder Ludvig Persson. Pivonka is now on a three-game goal streak after netting his seventh goal of the season. 68 seconds later, Matt Miller book-ended the scoring for the night when rifled home the Mavericks fourth and final goal of the night into the top left corner of the cage.

"It was a great start to the game getting out to a 1-0 lead there but they pushed back," Omaha head coach Mike Gabinet said. "It was nice to have such a good 2nd period. We made some good plays and capitalized on some opportunities to get the lead then had a solid 3rd period to make sure we came away with a big three points."

Senior netminder Jake Kucharski turned away 18 shots in route to his seventh victory of the season. The lone goal Kucharski allowed tonight was a high pass attempt that deflected off a Miami player and into the back of the net. The Pennsylvania product stopped a pair of RedHawk breakaway attempts tonight as well.

Omaha had another low penalty night only getting nailed for two infractions tonight. They killed both off and allowed just one shot on net between the two attempts. The Mavericks are the least penalized team in the NCHC.

The Mavericks and RedHawks will put the wraps on the series tomorrow night from Baxter Arena with a 7:07 p.m. slated puck drop.