By Bridget Brooks
After sweeping conference foe Miami (OH), Omaha is looking to build on its NCHC point total with a road trip to No. 9 St. Cloud.
SCSU is 9-4 overall and 3-1 in conference. They are 5-2 at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud this season. They are coming off a split with Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. They won Friday night 3-2 and lost 0-1 in overtime in the Saturday game versus the Tigers.
Omaha is 5-7-0 (3-3-0 in NCHC conference play). Omaha is coming off a sweep of the Miami (OH) RedHawks at Baxter Arena on Nov. 22-23.
Omaha and SCSU are tied for fourth place in the conference with 9 points each.
Junior forward Cam Mitchell met with the media ahead of the series with the Huskies. He said the sweep of the RedHawks gave the team confidence.
“It felt really good. Leading up to those games, we’ve played some pretty good hockey. I think we’ve come up on the short end of the stick, though. We’ve had a lot of one-goal games. I think after that last weekend, I think we should be able to keep the ball rolling, especially after a good week of practice,“ Mitchell said.
Mitchell recorded his first two goals as a Maverick during the series, both shorthanded tallies. “I was lucky enough to get my feet moving on that second one especially. And then [Sam] Stange making a great pass — and him moving his feet as well,“ Mitchell said. “I think just being in the right spots and having a little bit of luck, too. I think personally I’ve been playing some pretty good hockey, so it’s nice to kind of feel like this little weight is off my shoulders.”
Mitchell talked about cracking the lineup this season and changing his jersey number from 16 to 25 this year. “I think [the] first two years has been a little bit of ups and downs for me,” he said. “I think I just kind of wanted a full reset … it feels pretty good so far. I think I’ve had a good start to the year, and I’m hoping I can just keep contributing that.”
He joked that his mom was “a little upset” that he changed his number (“every jersey she has, has 16 on it,”) but he needed a “mental reset” and to “start from zero” and “build his way back up.”
Mitchell added that he hasn’t yet played at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center and said he’s “excited to get on that open sheet.”
Coach Gabinet said the team will get “a couple skates” on the Olympic ice sheet at St. Cloud before the series. “That’ll be nice just to get a little bit used to the size.” (SCSU is one of a handful of college hockey arenas that play on the 200 x 100 ice sheet.)
Looking ahead to the series, Gabinet said, “They play with a lot of speed and pace. They’re built for that Olympic-size rink, and obviously they’re ninth in the country for a reason.”
He said a few players are getting closer to getting back into the lineup after injury, including Zach Urdahl and Liam Watkins. Tanner Ludtke is expected to be out for the rest of the season, and Alexi Van Houtte-Cachero is likely out for this series.
Coach Gabinet also addressed how he puts together a game lineup. “I think ultimately the players determine the lineup by how they play and how they practice. And I think it’s been interesting — when you reflect back on the season, where maybe you have a guy in your mind [but] it hasn’t kind of came to fruition — both positively or negatively. I think that’s a testimony to the guys that are putting the work [in] and you might have a guy maybe a little bit lower coming in, and the next thing you know, he has played every game, or vice versa.”
“So, ultimately, the head coach has got to make a decision, and that’s not in [the player’s] control, and that’s what I tell ‘em – ‘It’s not in your control,’ – right?” he added. “So that [the player can] focus on is getting better, taking personal responsibility for yourself.”
“I want to win hockey games,” Gabinet said. “Everybody wants to win, so we’re trying to put the best lineup possible out there on the ice.”
Omaha and St. Cloud will meet for the 51st and 52nd games all-time this weekend. The Huskies lead the series 29-17-4 overall, and are 17-7-2 in games in St. Cloud. The last time the two teams met was in January, with Omaha getting an overtime win (7-6) on Friday night and a tie (1-1, with a shootout win for the extra conference point) on Saturday night to take four of six points in the road series.
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