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UNO '14 -'15 season thread. Will the sleeper awaken?

Re: UNO '14 -'15 season thread. Will the sleeper awaken?

Agreed Red Cow - that North Dakota series has to be considered the biggest series in program regular season history - assuming we take care of business with CC. Even with games in hand, we have separated ourselves from the Denvers and St. Clouds of the conference - though we need to continue winning obviously to stay in the upper 3-4 teams in the conference.

The only thing I hope is that we play with intensity - especially against the CCs and Western Michigans of the conference. We tend to play down to our competition (see UAH and NH). A Massa return will be important - we need consistency in the net. Thompson turned in a gem on Saturday against Denver, but it appears that the team just plays harder when Massa is in the crease. I don't know what it is. Although Saturday certainly disproves that - they played with an intensity that has been lacking lately.

Excited for the rest of the season for sure. I'm hoping with so many freshmen playing that they simply don't know about our second-half implosions in the past. Maybe they don't know the difference. Let's hope not.
 
Re: UNO '14 -'15 season thread. Will the sleeper awaken?

UNO continues its residency in bizarro world.

They split at CC and move up two spots in Pairwise, to #2 this weekend.

Friday night's game, I think, was a situation where this team played it's first game this season on Olympic ice, with all these freshman, they then took a major penalty at the beginning of the game and immediately gave up a goal thereafter. Plus, they played the entire 3rd period without their senior captain, who got injured. And, Thompson was in goal instead of Massa.

Why Thompson was in goal instead of senior Hobey Baker candidate Ryan Massa is totally beyond me and Coach Blais, in the press after the game, didn't say why except that this WAS the plan. Thompson Friday and Massa Saturday.

On paper, Friday night was not a game we should have lost, but I don't find it terribly shocking that we did, under the circumstances, and I'd really like to see somebody press Coach Blais for answers about starting Massa in goal on Friday as to why, particularly when it was announced earlier in the week that he was ready to go this weekend against CC.

The huge countdown to, at which point it is being played, the giant conference weekend series between UNO and North Dakota in 2 weeks here in Omaha has begun. I note they play next weekend and we don't.

Will easily be the biggest series, home or away, in UNO program history. Nothing else is even on the radar screen as far as that goes.
 
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Re: UNO '14 -'15 season thread. Will the sleeper awaken?

Just took a peek at tickets sales for UNO's upcoming series with North Dakota weekend after next (which are UNO's next games) and while sales have been good, it is nothing like I would have expected for games of this import. That said, these two nights are clearly going to be the largest crowds to see UNO play at home this season, to date, and it looks like they are going to have to open up sales to another upper level at some point between now and then. There appear to be less than 500 seats left in the lower bowl for either game as I write this.

National television both nights. CBS Sports on Friday and FCS on Saturday. Since the game is being televised locally (actually, statewide) Saturday night, as well, on NETV, I am pretty sure that FCS will pick up and broadcast the NETV (UNO announcers) broadcast. This has been done here, before, this season. On 12-12 against St. Cloud State.
 
Re: UNO '14 -'15 season thread. Will the sleeper awaken?

A little recruiting tidbit for today.

NHL Central Scouting released their mid-term rankings for this summer's NHL Draft yesterday.

UNO has a player on the "North American Skaters" list. Jack McNeely, a defenseman from Lakeville, MN, who will be here next season, at #177 on this list:

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=749385

UNO has another incoming player next season, Steve Spinner of Eden Prairie High in Minnesota (where he was a teammate of current UNO defenseman Luc Snuggerud) who is an NHL draft pick of the Washington Capitals in the 6th round this year and currently plays for the Omaha Lancers.

McNeely has been discussed as 2nd or 3rd round draft pick material and his name is also being bandied about for this season's Mr. Minnesota Hockey Award and/or the Reed Larson Award for the best defenseman in Minnesota High School hockey (which was won last season by his soon-to-be teammate, Luc Snuggerud, last season).

If he pulls off being a finalist for Mr. Minnesota Hockey, or actually winning the award, McNeely will make 5 UNO players on the roster next season that have either won, or, been a finalist for the award.

Thank you, Dean Blais, a guy that everybody seems to want to play for. With the facilities that you said you needed here to be successful that you are now getting, the hopes and dreams of UNO hockey fans everywhere may be soon realized.
 
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Re: UNO '14 -'15 season thread. Will the sleeper awaken?

Dean Blais comments about the miserable current state of the UNO power play:

http://www.omaha.com/uno/power-play...cle_d6ce0532-dd80-51ed-8abc-c557a6c07a50.html

...........despite the fact that this doesn't surprise me a whole lot, given that this is a team with 12 newcomers on it, something that gets zero mention in this "article", which is, essentially, a "fluff piece".

The issue is, the writer of this article, new-to-the-paper Tony Boone, has no college hockey background whatsoever and the average UNO fan or season ticket holder knows more about UNO and/or College Hockey than he does.

So, he writes an article about UNO Hockey (because that is part of his assigned beat) that's really pretty silly since the topic he chose is very explainable and does not even go into that since he doesn't understand the situation well enough to ask the "right" or pertinent questions of the people in a position to answer them. This is because he really knows very little about college hockey and is raising a topic here (not his first time, either) that is completely understandable to the average UNO Hockey fan here in Omaha, and, it's pretty funny, like it is some sort of a big mystery, or something.

Tony, if you can't offer any more insight than this, please move on. The average UNO fan has forgotten more about this team as well as about college hockey than you are ever going to know unless you actually start to care about what you are covering and admit to yourself that it might be something that you don't know more about than your readers and start writing from that perspective. When you are a carpetbagger, and just show up, and start writing about the team with zero perspective and less knowledge than even a casual UNO fan, you just look like pretty stupid.

Frankly, I don't know that this is even Tony's fault. My guess is this paper told him to cover UNO sports and, if you know nothing about that or the sports involved, his "work" is the end result.

This is very typical of the appalling treatment by the media here of anything sports related beyond Husker Football or Creighton Basketball (which after this season, by the way, the currently 9-11 Creighton Basketball team will be officially "over"--the coaches son, the best player in a generation, is gone).

Omaha, a place people get promoted and sent way from as far as the media is concerned. We get left with the dregs.
 
Re: UNO '14 -'15 season thread. Will the sleeper awaken?

UNO moves up to # 4 in the (meaningless) poll, equaling their highest ranking in school history.

Except, the last time was nowhere near this "late" in the season.

I really thought we'd get a first place vote or two after this past weekend but, alas, the purple Mavs, who are apparently the big engine that can (despite our splitting our season series with them as well, just like we did with North Dakota) probably deserve their number 1 ranking.

Week off before a home series with Western Michigan, whom we swept in Kalamazoo, already. No matter what happens in the NCHC this weekend, UNO will be in first place come this next Sunday morning, as well. If our "tie" with UND, up there, in November, ends up being the difference in the conference standings at the end and we win the Penrose because of this, I am going to have lot of fun with the UND fans who have sanctimoniously insisted that our shoot-out win on 11-28-14 was a "tie".
 
Re: UNO '14 -'15 season thread. Will the sleeper awaken?

Red Cows said:
UNO moves up to # 4 in the (meaningless) poll, equaling their highest ranking in school history.

Except, the last time was nowhere near this "late" in the season.

I really thought we'd get a first place vote or two after this past weekend but, alas, the purple Mavs, who are apparently the big engine that can (despite our splitting our season series with them as well, just like we did with North Dakota) probably deserve their number 1 ranking.

Week off before a home series with Western Michigan, whom we swept in Kalamazoo, already. No matter what happens in the NCHC this weekend, UNO will be in first place come this next Sunday morning, as well. If our "tie" with UND, up there, in November, ends up being the difference in the conference standings at the end and we win the Penrose because of this, I am going to have lot of fun with the UND fans who have sanctimoniously insisted that our shoot-out win on 11-28-14 was a "tie".
Click to expand...
To paraphrase the simple math we've had to slap Minnesota fans around with for a decade: 7 pts. > 5 pts.
 
Re: UNO '14 -'15 season thread. Will the sleeper awaken?

Red Cows said:
I really thought we'd get a first place vote or two after this past weekend but, alas, the purple Mavs, who are apparently the big engine that can (despite our splitting our season series with them as well, just like we did with North Dakota) probably deserve their number 1 ranking.

If our "tie" with UND, up there, in November, ends up being the difference in the conference standings at the end and we win the Penrose because of this, I am going to have lot of fun with the UND fans who have sanctimoniously insisted that our shoot-out win on 11-28-14 was a "tie".
Click to expand...

Is there less sancitmony in your calling a shootout win (2 pts) a win (3 points) and saying you split the season series (you didn't), than UND fans calling your shootout win (2 pts) a tie (1 pt)? Because to me their version is slightly more accurate, since if you use the actual columns in the standings you didn't get a win, you did get a tie and a shootout win.
 
Re: UNO '14 -'15 season thread. Will the sleeper awaken?

I just read a tweet from a MN high school goalie, Kobie Boe from #2 rated Edina, that he's going to UNO.


Of course he's going there to play varsity golf, but still....
 
Re: UNO '14 -'15 season thread. Will the sleeper awaken?

goldy_331 said:
I just read a tweet from a MN high school goalie, Kobie Boe from #2 rated Edina, that he's going to UNO.


Of course he's going there to play varsity golf, but still....
Click to expand...

That's pretty interesting. I have to think Coach Blais knows this. Looking at his stats, my guess is that he is a better golfer than a goalie. I suppose this could be a surreptitious way of getting another hockey player on campus, on scholarship, too. Goalie is probably the biggest question mark for UNO next season once Massa is gone, by the way.

Boe seems to have somewhat pedestrian numbers for a guy that has an 18-1-2 team playing in front of him. I wonder if they have any contingency plans to possibly press this guy into service here if they don't like what they have in Thompson or Crossthwaite?

Of note, too--I just took a look at UNO's men's golf team roster and EVERY current member of the team (except for one guy from Wichita) that isn't from the local area, is from a Minnesota high school! 4 guys on an 11 man team? It would be interesting to know if, and, if so, how many of them have high school hockey backgrounds. Worth me taking a look at although I suppose it shouldn't be too surprising that they have all played at least some hockey, at some point or another, high school or not.

Edit - The UNO spring golf season commences on February 23rd (although Boe is not a commit for this year), which would make playing both sports a practical impossibility, I would think.
 
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Re: UNO '14 -'15 season thread. Will the sleeper awaken?

Red Cows said:
That's pretty interesting. I have to think Coach Blais knows this. Looking at his stats, my guess is that he is a better golfer than a goalie. I suppose this could be a surreptitious way of getting another hockey player on campus, on scholarship, too. Goalie is probably the biggest question mark for UNO next season once Massa is gone, by the way.

Boe seems to have somewhat pedestrian numbers for a guy that has an 18-1-2 team playing in front of him. I wonder if they have any contingency plans to possibly press this guy into service here if they don't like what they have in Thompson or Crossthwaite?

Of note, too--I just took a look at UNO's men's golf team roster and EVERY current member of the team (except for one guy from Wichita) that isn't from the local area, is from a Minnesota high school! 4 guys on an 11 man team? It would be interesting to know if, and, if so, how many of them have high school hockey backgrounds. Worth me taking a look at although I suppose it shouldn't be too surprising that they have all played at least some hockey, at some point or another, high school or not.

Edit - The UNO spring golf season commences on February 23rd (although Boe is not a commit for this year), which would make playing both sports a practical impossibility, I would think.
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I don't think Kobi views himself playing DI hockey. And I doubt Blais does either. He's a hell of a golfer from what I hear though. I just thought it was interesting since he's the #1 goalie on the #2 ranked team in MN high school hockey this season.

Edited to fix the spelling of Kobi's name.
 
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Re: UNO '14 -'15 season thread. Will the sleeper awaken?

goldy_331 said:
I don't think Kobie views himself playing DI hockey. And I doubt Blais does either. He's a hell of a golfer from what I hear though. I just thought it was interesting since he's the #1 goalie on the #2 ranked team in MN high school hockey this season.
Click to expand...

Of the 4 Minnesota guys that are on the current UNO 11 man Golf Team:

Junior Brandon Sletmoen of Hawley, MN does not have appeared to have played high school hockey

Nor did freshman Ryan Mayer of Eden Prairie High School, where he was a member of the same graduating class with current Maverick defenseman Luc Snuggerud and incoming (next season) forward Steve Spinner, who is currently playing with the Omaha Lancers.

Junior Alex Holtan of Buffalo, MN did play high school hockey at Buffalo High School, though, and freshman Lucas Gervais of Fergus Falls High School did, as well.

Wouldn't appear anything strange is going on here but it is sure is odd that UNO's 11 man golf team, next season, will feature 5 players from Minnesota high schools, at least three of whom have hockey backgrounds.

Obviously, I am sure there are a ton of guys that play high school hockey in Minnesota and never take it further.
 
Re: UNO '14 -'15 season thread. Will the sleeper awaken?

Red Cows said:
That's pretty interesting. I have to think Coach Blais knows this. Looking at his stats, my guess is that he is a better golfer than a goalie. I suppose this could be a surreptitious way of getting another hockey player on campus, on scholarship, too. Goalie is probably the biggest question mark for UNO next season once Massa is gone, by the way.
Click to expand...

Hockey is higher up the NCAA food chain than golf, so if he's on athletic scholarship, it would count towards the hockey team's total. I doubt it amounts to anything, as he's a better golfer than goalie, and I don't think he could be anything other than a third-string goalie without playing any sort of junior hockey, but you never know with the way Blais churns and burns through goalies.
 
Re: UNO '14 -'15 season thread. Will the sleeper awaken?

The question posed by the thread title has apparently been answered, the sleeper has awakened.

O.K. what movie is that phrase from? Not a soul has referenced this and I am, frankly, disappointed.

UNO's Avery Peterson wins the NCHC Rookie of the Month Award:

http://www.omaha.com/uno/mavericks-...cle_e9325fb2-ac03-11e4-be0e-e79c036587a9.html

http://www.nchchockey.com/news_article/show/474431?referrer_id=878553

And, UNO has won the NCHC Rookie of the Week Award 5 times this season. This is the first "of the month" award. Starting the season with 11 freshmen (now, 10) they ought to be winning these awards and, with some regularity.
 
Re: UNO '14 -'15 season thread. Will the sleeper awaken?

UNO forward Austin Ortega, with 9 game winning goals this season, is one away from tying the all time NCAA record of 10, shared by 7 guys and most recently done by Colin Hemingway of New Hampshire in 2001:

http://www.insidecollegehockey.com/6History/ncaarec_indoffseas.htm

I guess the most prominent and interesting name on the list sharing the record is Aaron Broten, who did this for the Gophers in 1981.

A kind of interesting aside about Broten with an Omaha angle. He is the uncle of current Omaha Lancer and '15-'16 North Dakota commit Shane Gersich.
 
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Re: UNO '14 -'15 season thread. Will the sleeper awaken?

UNO Captain Dominic Zombo will not play this weekend against WMU because of a groin injury.

For anybody that did not see this in the "free streaming online thread":

If you want to see UNO vs. Western Michigan this Friday night at 7:30 P.M., central, you can do so by watching NETV's live stream of the game, freebie, here:

http://netnebraska.org/interactive-m...gan-vs-omaha-0

NETV is Nebraska Public Television, on which several games per season are televised so the Mavericks can be seen, statewide.

This is as good of streaming feed as I have ever seen and is in hi-def.
Click to expand...

Omaha World Herald story about Austin Ortega from today:

http://www.omaha.com/uno/shatel-esc...cle_b1a3fbff-4305-5b7b-a425-745e4a34c68c.html
 
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