Omaha vs. Lake Superior State, Dec. 30-31 at Baxter Arena

The "road warriors" return to Baxter Arena this weekend after what seems like an eternity without a home hockey series. Jon and I were fortunate enough to catch the last Maverick series, a road trip to St. Cloud where we saw Coach Dean Blais pick up his 400th career win during the Friday night game (3-1), but the Mavs dropped their first road game of the year, losing 4-2 on Saturday, Dec. 10.

The Mavs have struggled at Baxter Arena over much of the the past year (dating back to January 2016). UNO is 2-5-1 at home this season, and the Mavs have gone 5-3-2 in their last 10 games. In an Omaha World-Herald article today, both Coach Blais and UNO Captain Justin Parizek talked about the importance of a second-half run, and how last year's second-half meltdown is still haunting them.

The Mavs last faced the Lakers in 2010. Lake Superior State is 8-9-1 overall (the Mavs are 9-6-3), but the Mavs lead the all-time series with the Lakers 14-9-5. Let's hope the wins continue.

Media Roundup Leading to the Series:
OMavs series preview:
http://www.omavs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=31400&ATCLID=211382489

Lake State series preview:
http://www.lssulakers.com/sports/m-hockey/2016-17/releases/20161229h6pes9

Tony Boone's Omaha World-Herald series preview:
http://www.omaha.com/uno/hockey/while-painful-for-mavs-reminder-of-last-season-s-second/article_20f1f737-b919-5a0b-b1f2-67ae0d5d54f0.html

OMavs Weekly News Release:
http://www.omavs.com/pdf9/5161509.pdf

Tickets: 
There are plenty of tickets available online for this weekend's series.

UNO is offering a "BOHO" ticket offer for this series -- buy one, get one half off:

Friday tickets on Ticketmaster ($20-$27):
http://www1.ticketmaster.com/omaha-mavericks-hockey-v-lake-superior-omaha-nebraska-12-30-2016/event/06005103EDC3B48F?ATCLID=211382489&SPSID=795013&SPID=135111&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=31400&artistid=838151&majorcatid=10004&minorcatid=9&fg=sv&f_display_landing_popup=true&f_sessioncam=1&f_enforce_primary_tt=true&ab=m_efeat2788v4desktop

Saturday tickets on Ticketmaster ($20-$27):
http://www1.ticketmaster.com/omaha-mavericks-hockey-v-lake-superior-omaha-nebraska-12-31-2016/event/06005103EDC8B495?ATCLID=211382489&SPSID=795013&SPID=135111&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=31400&artistid=838151&majorcatid=10004&minorcatid=9&fg=sv&f_display_landing_popup=true&f_sessioncam=1&f_enforce_primary_tt=true&ab=m_efeat2788v4desktop

Ticket Express has a pair of tickets available for Friday night ($20):
http://www.ticketexpress.com/event/uno-mavericks-vs-lake-superior-state-lakers-baxter-arena-hockey-2016-12-30-7:07-pm-tickets

Ticket Express has fewer than a dozen Saturday tickets still available ($18-33):
http://www.ticketexpress.com/event/uno-mavericks-vs-lake-superior-state-lakers-baxter-arena-hockey-2016-12-31-4:07-pm-tickets

There are currently no tickets for sale within the MavPuck Group on Facebook (must be approved for group membership to see the posts), but you can post a "tickets wanted" post:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mavpuck/

Radio/TV Coverage:
Friday and Saturday night's games will be available by subscription ($) on NCHC.tv.

Radio coverage begins with the First National Bank Pre-Game Show at 6:30 p.m. on Friday and 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. Dave Ahlers will have the play-by-play, Terry Leahy will give color commentary and analysis, and Lester St. James will report from ice level.

Live Audio and Stats:
Live audio link here.
Live stats (Friday) here.
Live stats (Saturday) here.

Next Weekend:
NCHC conference play heats up -- in a big way -- as North Dakota visits Baxter Arena on Jan. 6-7 with a pair of conference games at 7:07 p.m. each night.

Baxter Arena and UNO have also announced the 2017 "Skate With the Mavs" event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/931169010352240/

(Blog post on that later.)

Omaha at Wisconsin: Dec. 2-3, 2016

I read somewhere this week on Twitter that the Big 10 has the best out-of-conference record of any conference in NCAA Division 1 hockey. We'll see how the NCHC compares to the Big 10 as UNO Hockey faces off with Wisconsin this weekend.

Coming off a tie and a win last weekend at Northern Michigan, the Mavericks are unbeaten on the road or at neutral sites this season (5-0-1). The Badgers are 7-5-0 this season, and are .500 at home (3-3-0). They won (2-1) at Colorado College and lost to Denver 6-5 at Denver.

Omaha World-Herald reporter Tony Boone reports that Freddy Olofsson will still be out for this series, and David Pope and Ian Brady will be joining him out of the lineup.

Special teams are likely to be a big part of this weekend's games. The Mavs have the number one power play in the nation, and Wisconsin is #4 in the nation for power play.

Series preview articles:

Omaha World-Herald series preview article:
http://www.omaha.com/uno/hockey/uno-captain-justin-parizek-proving-productive-during-return-to-ice/article_18836751-8523-5f87-a30d-3c14522e56b2.html

Wisconsin State Journal preview article:
http://host.madison.com/wsj/sports/college/hockey/badgers-men-s-hockey-notes-prolific-power-plays-from-omaha/article_7c14dc24-072a-5894-8c51-c3887b6e4614.html

Wisconsin State Journal about the Badgers problems at even strength:
http://host.madison.com/wsj/sports/college/hockey/badgers-men-s-hockey-at-even-strength-scoring-experiences-a/article_1dc8326c-0db9-573f-83e1-bd63a51ce46d.html

Omavs.com article:
http://www.omavs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=31400&ATCLID=211332994

Wisconsin Badgers article:
http://www.uwbadgers.com/news/2016/12/1/mens-hockey-uw-omaha.aspx?path=mhockey

When:
Friday, 7:37 p.m. Central
Saturday, 8:07 p.m. Central

Radio/TV Coverage:
Both games will be broadcast live on 1180 AM (The Zone 2). Dave Ahlers will provide play-by-play and Terry Leahy will give color commentary. Coverage begins at 7:07 p.m. on Friday night and 7:37 p.m. Saturday night with the First National Bank Pre-Game Show.

Friday night's game is available on ASN (check local listings here), on TSN2 in Canada and online at BTN2Go (must have a cable login to view).

Saturday night's game should be available on the livestream link for Wisconsin Public Television:
http://wpt.org/watch/watch-wisconsin-channel-online?ATCLID=211332994&SPSID=795013&SPID=135111&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=31400

Note: Because this is a non-conference road series, it is not available on NCHC.tv.

Live Audio and Stats:
Live audio link here.
Live stats (Friday) here.
Live stats (Saturday) here.

Next Weekend:
The Mavs complete their three weekend road series as they return to conference play, taking on St. Cloud State on Friday, Dec. 9 at 7:37 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 10 at 7:07 p.m. at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud, Minnesota.