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.)