UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

[MAVFANJEFF]

Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

I don't know that I'd give Belfour a start. Let us get up on Tech by a few goals then put him in there. But then I'm not a coach. One benifit of playing Dayn is that there isn't much for film on him to scout.

 

[Tipsy McStagger]

Big sweep but it did NOTHING for our NCAA chances. We are currently tied for 21st in Pairwise. We were all alone in 22nd about an hour ago but the end of the Miami/Bowling Green game apparently flipped a comparison and moved us up a notch.

5th series sweep of the season for us, now. 3 home, 2 on the road.

We swept Bemidji and we moved down two spots in Pairwise this weekend. Our next opponent, Michigan Tech won't help our cause much either, even if we sweep them. And, I think another sweep this coming weekend is imperative.

The whole thing is goofy for us and I wonder if it is possible that could win the MacNaughton but still aren't ranked high enough in Pairwise to make the NCAA tourney without having some sort of good run in the WCHA tournament. We only have 5 series left and only two of them are against TUCS. At least, both those series are at home. Not having won the Notre Dame game, or one of the Quinnipiac games, or the game we tied in Denver is just killing us in Pairwise right now. It's really tragic when you look at Pairwise because our placement down at 21st really stands out when you look at the standings because of our overall record and our RPI. We look kind of out of place down there.

That's said, it has to be like Al Davis said, "Just win, baby". We do that and hopefully it'll all work out in the end.

We need Montpetit and Raubenheimer back.

Our season, IMHO opinion, literally boils down to wherever John Faulkner does or does not take us. I don't think Coach Blais is real enamored with Faulkner, either, since he said, flat-out, on the pregame show tonight, that he is going to give Dayn Belfour a start. My bet is that it is next weekend.

edit: UNO bettered it's win total from last season tonight.

If UNO beats the good teams they have left on their schedule, which they will have to do to win the MacNaughton, they will be fine. I doubt that splitting those series will be good enough though.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

The local ABC affiliate here in Omaha, as part of their regular Sunday night weathercast, gives a 2 week extended outlook every weekend. Tonight's, therefore, was through Sunday, February 10th.

The specific forecast they gave for the Saturday the 9th outdoor game with North Dakota is 30 degrees with a chance of snow.

A snowy day ought to make for an even more interesting event, I guess. Tickets sales have not been great for that game. I heard vicariously that the Friday night game sales and the Saturday outdoor game sales are pretty close to one another, about 10,000 each right now with more tickets having been sold for the outdoor event than the indoor game on Friday night.

The whole outdoor game weekend has been pretty poorly promoted here so far. It's being put on by the Omaha Sports Commission and they have been all wrapped up in staging the US Figure Skating Championships here in Omaha, which just ended today. Perhaps they'll now turn their time and attention more to this event.

Those two games look like they are gonna be huge in the conference race. I guess at this juncture of the season in a race this close, they all are.

As far as the NCAA tourney is concerned for us, it sure would be nice if Colorado College and Minnesota Duluth became TUCs, which they very well could as, if they did, it would change UNO's TUC record from 4-8-1 to 8-8-1. If that were the case right now, it would flip the comparisons between us and 6 other teams, Ferris State (who we're tied with), Northern Michigan, Colgate, Niagara, Minnesota State, and Dartmouth. UNO would be #14 in Pairwise right now. Further, UNO is close to flipping a couple other comparisons as well, both North Dakota and UMass-Lowell.

Both CC and UMD are tantalizingly close to the TUC line. I'm already envisioning a strange, seemingly plausible scenario where it MIGHT behoove UNO to lose one or maybe even both of their season ending series games with Minnesota Duluth because losing to them might actually make them TUCs and flip comparisons we might have otherwise lost and get us into the tournament by doing so. I readily acknowledge a lot has to happen before that might even be plausible.

God forbid. Let's just win enough of the remaining games that we aren't even confronted by any such possibility.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

From Coach Blais radio show tonight:

Zahn Raubenheimer will start skating again tomorrow but Coach Blais says he is a couple weeks from playing again as yet.

Brock Montpetit is still in a walking boot and he gave no timeline for his return whatsoever and he talked very much like he was dubious that he will return at all. At the very least, not anytime soon.

Coach Blais said about 15,000 tickets have been sold for the outdoor game and he said the crowd for the Friday night game wasn't terribly far behind that, which I find difficult to believe when you look at Ticketmaster. Looks more like about 10,000 for that one to me right now. He probably knows something I don't, I guess.

He mentioned that neither he nor Dave Hakstol have ever coached an outdoor game in their respective careers. Originally, this game was a choice for UNO between playing it this weekend against Michigan Tech or playing it next weekend, he said. Coach Hakstol was apparently hot for the idea and that's why it's North Dakota, instead. I think North Dakota was a no-brainer for this game under any set of circumstances.

The rink installation started today. Dave Ahlers, UNO's play-by-play man, was at the stadium today to see the broadcast vantage, said it would be quite challenging, and that they would need binoculars. He did not sound like he was kidding. In fact, he sounded quite concerned about this.

Coach Blais mentioned the many busloads of North Dakota fans that are coming, including, he said, some from Denver, even.

Another very, very interesting thing was uttered by Coach Blais tonight. He said that this team, while not the most talented he has ever had in his career was "by far" the most focused team he had ever had.

 

[puckhead@uno]

Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

That was my first radio show of the year to attend, I listen to as many as I can.

I agree, I caught the focus comment and found that encouraging. This team seems to be a much easier one to coach than last year. The results probably show that.

I think we'll get good crowds and good efforts this weekend. The leadership from this team...I think...senses they have a real shot to do something unique in this school's history. How cool would it be to see Faulkner break Elly's record against UND!

It's going to be a fantastic 2 weekends here!

 

[LincolnMav]

Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

Hopefully the boys can keep the train rolling this weekend. No looking ahead to North Dakota!! Cant friggin wait for this weekend.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

From Mavpuck.

Another outdoor game added to the card on Saturday, February 9th.

The University of Nebraska is going to play the Creighton Bluejays at 9:00 A.M. that day. My assumption is that the same ticket gets you in to see this game as well but that is just a guess. The Husker Hockey team does have this on their schedule now on their web site but that is the only corroboration of this announcement I can find. I can't find another source. Creighton does not as yet. The two teams also play the next day at Ralston Arena (Creighton Hockey's new home this season) as well and THAT is on both their schedules. Anybody know more than this?

 

[LincolnMav]

Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

Jeez, the ice could really be a mess by the time UNO plays. Lets all hope for the best!

 

[MAVFANJEFF]

Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

Jeez, the ice could really be a mess by the time UNO plays. Lets all hope for the best!

Uhhh no,,, after the initial crappy install and warmups for the morning game followed by resurfacing followed by 1 period of play followed by resurfacing followed by another period of play followed by resurfacing followed by another period of play followed by warmups for the USHL game followed by resurfacing followed by 1 period of play followed by resurfacing followed by another period of play followed by resurfacing followed by another period of play followed by resurfacing followed by warmups for the UNO game followed by resurfacing followed by 1 period of play followed by resurfacing followed by another period of play followed by resurfacing followed by another period of play the ice should be good. So good in fact that anyone that would have gotten to play on it after that would have the best ice of the day there. I'm dizzy now.

Having a club game there in the morning to break in that new sheet of ice is the best thing to happen for the Lancers and UNO.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

Having a club game there in the morning to break in that new sheet of ice is the best thing to happen for the Lancers and UNO.

I note that somebody on Mavpuck, who claims to have spoken to one of the Creighton coaches, is dubious about the club game coming off at all, now. However, the poster did not say why. Again, the Huskers do show this game on their schedule at TD Ameritrade:

http://www.huskerhockey.com/index.php?option=com_hockeyteam&task=showSchedule&Itemid=73

.........but I find it awfully odd that I haven't heard one iota of discussion about this in the media or from the Omaha Sports Commission, who is the sponsor of this event, who doesn't have a thing about it on their web site, either.

 

[LincolnMav]

Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

Uhhh no,,, after the initial crappy install and warmups for the morning game followed by resurfacing followed by 1 period of play followed by resurfacing followed by another period of play followed by resurfacing followed by another period of play followed by warmups for the USHL game followed by resurfacing followed by 1 period of play followed by resurfacing followed by another period of play followed by resurfacing followed by another period of play followed by resurfacing followed by warmups for the UNO game followed by resurfacing followed by 1 period of play followed by resurfacing followed by another period of play followed by resurfacing followed by another period of play the ice should be good. So good in fact that anyone that would have gotten to play on it after that would have the best ice of the day there. I'm dizzy now.

Having a club game there in the morning to break in that new sheet of ice is the best thing to happen for the Lancers and UNO.

Well i stand corrected. Shows how much knowledge i have with the making of the ice. LOL Glad to hear itll just keep getting better as the day goes on. LETS SWEEP TECH! GO MAVS!!

 

[Red Cows]

Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

Game day. Points needed. Let's get them.

Fast fact: Michigan Tech has not defeated UNO since 12-20-97. The Mav's best against-an-opponent winning percentage (of teams we've played at least 10 times), all time (NCAA teams), is against UAH, followed by Michigan Tech at #2 on that list.

Ryan Walters passed UMD forward Mike Seidel in the online Hobey Baker Award "voting" this morning and moved into 5th place.

Zahn Raubenheimer, who pretty much single-handedly beat Tech, literally, in the sweep in Houghton in November won't play, but Matt White (the nations' 12th leading scorer), who didn't even make that trip, will.

The game tonight is on local (statewide) television. Be interesting to see to what degree that might affect the gate.

John Faulkner is two wins away from tying Dan Ellis' school record for wins of 53. Say what you want about Faulkner but he is now 13-4-2 this season with a .737 winning percentage that ranks fifth in the country and second in the WCHA.

The Mavs are also looking for their 6th series sweep this season as well, which would tie the team record.

In other news, North Dakota has secured the rights to televise the outdoor game next week back in North Dakota and will show the local Omaha COX cable broadcast of the game that will be done by Gary Sharp. Somebody gets to listen to our homer announcers for a change.

edit: UNO had now "undraped" the upper deck for Saturday night's game, looking at Ticketmaster. The undraped portion of the arena is nearly sold out. That means we are looking at a crowd of 10,000+ on Saturday night.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

Rink construction today (video) for next Saturday's game at TD Ameritrade Park with North Dakota:

http://sports.omaha.com/2013/02/01/video-outdoor-hockey-rink-installed-at-td-ameritrade-park/

 

[Red Cows]

Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

Glass........half..........full.........I guess.

Won a game we should and one where we didn't play the greatest, too.

However, what UNO really needs is for Colorado College and Minnesota Duluth to become Tucs, which would flip at least 6 comparisons for us the last time I looked. I want this team to get into the NCAA tournament and if those teams would cooperate we wouldn't have to sweat this out. That they aren't is making our remaining series with both North Dakota and Wisconsin even more ginormous than they are already going to be. As things stand now those are the only games against Tucs we have left. And, we have two games left with UMD that could conceivably either make them a Tuc or not make them a Tuc and also dramatically affect our Pairwise ranking.

Largest crowd of the season tonight. That won't even last 24 hours as we'll have 10,000 + tomorrow night. And that will last until next weekend when there will be bigger crowds both Friday and Saturday larger than tomorrow night's will be.

Between periods tonight one of the interviews on TV was with Harold Cliff, the President of the Omaha Sports Commission, who is putting on the outdoor games next weekend. On camera, he said that only 10,000 or so seats had been sold as yet for the outdoor games next weekend. I must say I am not surprised. UNO does a shamefully poor job of publicizing the hockey team in general and doesn't have much of a relationship with the media, at least partly, I think, because the hockey knowledge of the media here is extremely poor. Rob White, who covers the team for the Omaha World Herald clearly writes things that are spoon fed to him and would have you believe, get this, that UNO's defense corps is among the best in the country. That is laughably stupid since it isn't even close to the best in the WCHA. The defense corps is the single biggest problem this team has, in fact. Anyway, you'd hardly know UNO was playing an outdoor game next weekend. The media seems to have just now taken note.

I tell you what would be hilarious, and might happen if the weather is bad, is if the Friday night indoor game outsells the outdoor event the next day. Right now the ticket sales are neck and neck.

Ryan Walters extended his scoring streak tonight and Alex Simonson and Joe Krause both got their first career points tonight. Pretty amazing thing to have happen to two different players on the same night on this team, this late in the season.

UNO has scored more goals than any team in the country, passing the Gophers tonight, who did not play. Caveat. We've also played one more game, now, than them. Our team features 4 of the top 13 scorers in the conference and those 4 guys are in the top 29 in the nation, too. Wow.

Need another win to keep the pressure on everybody else.

 

[MAVFANJEFF]

Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

Ryan Walters extended his scoring streak tonight and Alex Simonson and Joe Krause both got their first career points tonight. Pretty amazing thing to have happen to two different players on the same night on this team, this late in the season.

Krause is slowly knocking the rust off. I think he has a promising future. Tech had some long moments where they looked like a great team. I think they have a morale problem though.

 

[Thecalkid]

Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

Will the outdoor game be streamed online?

 

[Red Cows]

Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

Good question. Don't know. Since North Dakota has purchased the rights to show it up there from the local cable affiliate here in Omaha that is doing the broadcast (COX Cable), perhaps they might be an outlet for that. I haven't really concerned myself with this since I will be at the game. I'll try to find out, though.

I note that North Dakota has rented out the Mattress Factory for their pregame thing they are calling the "North Dakota Outdoor Game Fan Experience". They can have it. My wife and I think the food is terrible there and we won't go near the place.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

Krause is slowly knocking the rust off. I think he has a promising future.

Did you know that, even though he is just a sophomore, Krause is one of the 6 oldest guys on the team? He's gonna be 24 this year! The only older guys are Young, White, Gwidt, Belfour, & Faulkner, who are all, except for Belfour, upperclassmen.

 

[gomavs#1]

Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

Tough loss tonight. Looked like we were playing on our heels in OT. Tech played tough...fought us off the puck a lot the first two periods. Was hoping for a 3 point weekend at least heading into OT. Congrats to Tech on the victory. Thanks Creighton and Century Link for the fantastic ice out there tonight. Never seen anything like it. We look only semi-ridiculously embarrassing having to stop play every five minutes or so to squeegee the lake in front of the goalies. Brutal.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: UNO 2012-13 Season Thread - Blaising To An Xcellent Season?

Absolutely devastating loss to UNO's MacNaughton chances as well as their NCAA chances.

Now, the Mavs have to win at least one game I didn't see them winning between now and the end of the year (meaning they MUST now sweep either North Dakota, Wisconsin, or UMD, all series I had pegged as splits) and SCSU must now also lose a game I didn't see them losing.

Almost everything bad that could happen tonight did. UNO lost. SCSU won. UMD lost. North Dakota won. CC only managed a tie, again. At least they didn't lose.

UNO, instead of being 1 point down and keeping pace, are now down 3--with 8 games left--and dropped to 21st in Pairwise. All despite being 16-10-2 and all lone in 2nd place in the WCHA in February, of all things.

The Mavs played down to their competition yet again, looked very uninterested considering what was and is on the line, and tonight really underscored the inadequacies of John Faulkner, who gave up two goals by guys shooting from the wing from 30' + away with nobody anywhere near screening him, even. He looked sheepish after both goals and, well, he should, since neither should have gone in. Ironically, other than their two gimme goals he was great, otherwise. The Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde of goalies.

Only Faulkner would give up a goal, in this situation, to a senior who hardly ever plays and was only playing in his 3rd game of the season, tallying only the 2nd goal of his entire career and only the 8th point of his career as well. The only thing stranger might have been us winning in OT with Turgeon or Simonson getting the game-winner for us--and they both have played vastly more than this guy has and they hardly play.

Sheesh.

9248 in the building tonight despite the fact that almost 11,000 seats were sold. Just one more disgusting thing. UNO disseminates more tickets to more people that don't show up than any team/program/school I have ever seen.

A poorly officiated game, particularly in the 3rd period where there were numerous obvious penalties either way that weren't called. Not withstanding one non-call that lead instantly after it happened to Michigan Tech scoring it's first goal in the 2nd period. It's the reason the goal was even scored.

The ice situation was also utterly ridiculous as the game lost all continuity due to numerous play stoppages to repair problems with the ice or to just flat-out squeegee the water off it. Never seen anything like it. They actually turned on the air conditioner in the building during the 2nd period!

Poor effort by our guys tonight, and, last night as well. You can't mail them in in this league. And that really is what happened both nights. Maybe some good will come of this but the tomorrows are running out fast this season. As deflating a loss as there has been in the history of the program, considering how important this game really was.