Re: NCAA West Regional - 3/25, 3/26 - BC, Michigan, UNO, CC
As a Sioux fan, I would like to comment on that game for the benefit of the BC/Mich fans. UNO is a Jekyll and Hyde team that you will either be completely unimpressed by, or will beat you 6-3. I have watched the majority of North Dakota home games since the early 90s and when UND gets down by 2 at home they nearly always respond. The response that game was UNO shoving 4 more goals right up our butt. And these were nice goals on power plays where we were short handed because we tackled a guy to stop them from having a 3 on 1. And UND was not flat that night, they just got smoked. When they have their A games they don't win by one goal, they ROLL UP on people. 4-0 after 2 against Michigan as another example. So be somewhat afraid... Or not, if the stale fart team that lost to Bemidji 9 times shows up...
I think this a reasonably fair assessment of UNO. Some random UNO thoughts that might be interesting to those not too familiar with us:
1. UNO has 11 freshmen on the team, 10 of which have gotten
significant playing time.
2. One "problem" we have is a lack of star power (other than our coach). I bet BC fan can't name a single player on our team.
3. That said, UNO has
eight players with 10 or more goals. Nobody else in the WCHA has more than 6.
4. Goalie John Faulkner is tied for the NCAA lead in shutouts with 6 including one against North Dakota.
5. Terry Broadhurst is the engine that makes UNO go, IMHO. When UNO hit it's rough spot, mid-season, it coincided with him being hurt.
6. The defensemen are the weakest link on this team, top to bottom. Underclassmen are playing a major roll here as it's pretty apparent that Coach Blais doesn't think much of the guys he inherited (other than Eric Olimb) when he took the head coaching job. Nick Von Bokern (Sr), Pasko Skarica (Sr), and Kyle Ensign (Jr) have played
much diminished rolls this year as opposed to previous seasons. Skarica was a scratch on Senior Night! That ought to tell you something. Freshman defenseman Andres Sustr, at 6' 8", is the tallest player in D-1.
7. UNO has played their best games all season against the best teams on their schedule. The better the competition, the better they have been. They are 6-6 against teams in the tournament (all but one of whom is seeded higher) and they played 8 of those 12 games on the road. I saw all 4 games we played against North Dakota and they all looked awfully even to me. The most epic ice wars I have ever seen UNO fight in their 14 year history, in splitting, both here and there.
8. The most underrated player on the team is Alex Hudson. Coach Blais has publicly said he thinks the players may vote him captain next season. He is one of the few Afro-American players in D-1 and he is my favorite player on the team, closely followed by Broadhurst.
9. UNO probably has one of the most celebrated assistant coaching staffs in the nation. Mike Hastings is simply the most accomplished coach in USHL history, is the winningest coach in the history of league (529-210-56!) and won 3 Clark Cups coaching the Omaha Lancers and won two junior hockey national championships with the Lancers as well. He's sent 35 Omaha Lancers to the NHL! Mike Guentzel is also an Omaha hockey legend and household name as well. He preceded Coach Hastings as Coach of the Lancers and in his 3 seasons with them
he won 2 Clark Cups! He was also a Gopher assistant for 11 years after his Lancers stint and they went to the NCAA's every year he was there and won two titles. It's an odd situation here in Omaha where the assistant coaches are at least as beloved as the head coach. UNO also has a goalie coach as well, something I am not too sure many schools have.
10. UNO has played one game, EVER, against BC, a 5-1 loss in the Championship Game of UNO's annual pre-season tournament, the Maverick Stampede. This was in the tournament's inaugural year of '00-'01 that also featured Niagara and Notre Dame and was played at the Omaha Civic Auditorium, as the Qwest Center had yet to be built, then. Hope we get another shot at them.
11. We obviously have an extensive history with Michigan and have won three out of the last four including a split at Yost this season with an otherwise pretty abysmal all-time record against them, 7-25-3. Just starting our CC history although we'd played them one other time prior to this year.
12. UNO has the largest booster club in all of college hockey. In fact, if you look at the CCHA press guide from our last year in the league, they duly noted in it that UNO's booster club
was larger than ALL the other CCHA team's booster clubs, combined! We'll be in St Louis in force.
Final thoughts.......UNO is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde mostly because of all those freshmen, I think. As they go in this deal, we'll go. Makes me a little nervous, though. Our coach is a big intangible for us. Been here, done this. Many times. Our power play also needs to immediately get more productive. It's been horrible since the first of the year. I wouldn't be shocked if we were one and done, but, I also would not be shocked if we won the whole thing, either. I just saw Coach Blais on the local news here and he looked like he was chomping at the bit to get at it. Really enthused. The poster that said that he expected a grind it out, defensive game with Michigan sure hasn't seen us play, that's for sure. UNO is one of the better skating teams you are going to see. A lot of fast guys. It was real noticeable all season long.
Let's get it on! Let's go UNO!
. I actually was surprised BC played so well out there at that time given that they usually start out a little slow. That slow start just took a few games to manifest itself, late October up until that Merrimack game the day after Thanksgiving , 8-5-0 at that time then going 22-2-1 since . I think most BC fans would agree that over the past month we have only seen this team play to their full capability once, that UNH game on March 4th, a 4-0 win, but they are still managing to win.