Omaha at Miami (OH): Nov. 11-12, 2016 in "Heroes Series"

UNO travels to Oxford, OH, to take on the Miami University RedHawks in a two game series at Steve Cady Arena in the Goggin Ice Center. The RedHawks are looking for their first win in NCHC play after having been swept last weekend by Western Michigan. The Mavericks are looking to build on last weekends split with Colorado College at Baxter Arena. 

Series Preview Articles:

• The Miami Student (Student Newspaper) article: http://miamistudent.net/?p=17018204 

• Omaha World-Herald (Tony Boone) preview: http://www.omaha.com/uno/hockey/mavericks-showing-strength-on-power-play-early-this-season/article_25ed2e8d-9acf-58e4-9770-3cf8b2533624.html 

• OMavs.com article: http://www.omavs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=31400&ATCLID=211286697 

When:
Friday: 6:35 p.m. Central, Friday
Saturday: 6:05 p.m. Central, Saturday

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. both nights. Dave Ahlers will have the play-by-play, Terry Leahy will give color commentary and analysis.

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

Next Weekend:
The Mavericks return to Omaha for a series with Minnesota-Duluth. on Friday, Nov. 18 at 7:07 p.m. Central and Saturday, Nov. 19 at 7:07 p.m. Central.

First "Real" Games of the Year: Brice Alaska Goal Rush (Oct. 14-15, 2016)

In a week filled with highs and lows, the Mavs start the "real" 2016-17 season with the Brice Alaska Goal Rush tournament tonight, taking on Alaska Anchorage tonight at 7:07 p.m. Central time. The Mavericks will play Alaska on Saturday at 10:07 p.m. Central.

The lows from last week were the loss to the University of Alberta in the exhibition, and a very interesting Tom Shatel article featuring Coach Blais.

Before that article, Tony Boone actually had a really nice interview with Blais in which (as I put it), Blais "called his shot" and said the Mavs are going to win the Goal Rush. We'll see.

Alaska Anchorage is 0-2-0 on the season, getting swept at home by Minnesota last Friday night, and Alaska on Saturday night. Alaska, meanwhile, is 1-1-0, having beaten Alaska Anchorage on Saturday, but losing to Minnesota on Sunday.

One interesting note: The Mavericks left for Alaska on Wednesday, one day earlier than normal, after having encountered significant travel difficulties in their last trip up North. We'll see if getting acclimated to the time change makes a difference for the Mavs this time around.

Here's a roundup of articles leading up to the tournament:

Tony Boone post-exhibition Omaha World-Herald article (featuring the infamous Blais quote about winning the tournament):
http://www.omaha.com/uno/hockey/mavs-senior-forward-justin-parizek-will-captain-a-team-dean/article_28ebfe1c-e4c1-5e00-a20d-29315c7baa53.html

Tony Boone Omaha World-Herald Goal Rush tournament preview:
http://www.omaha.com/uno/hockey/after-fading-down-the-stretch-last-season-uno-heads-to/article_e75bfd42-df3b-5eaf-a44e-1dfa1e3f78cd.html

Omavs.com Goal Rush tournament preview:
http://www.omavs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=211226104&DB_OEM_ID=3140

TV Coverage:
Friday and Saturday night's games are available on WCHA.tv. A one-day "Alaska" pass is $8.99:
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/wcha/

(The monthly pass is $19.99, so you may be tempted to buy that instead of two one-day passes, but if it works like it used to, you will be auto-renewed for November if you don't cancel after this weekend's series, so I don't recommend that.)

Dudley's Pizza and Tavern in Aksarben Village will also be showing this weekend's games.

Radio Coverage:
The games will be broadcast on 1180 AM (1180 The Zone 2). Dave Ahlers will provide radio play-by-play and Terry Leahy will provide color commentary and analysis. Coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. on Friday with the First National Bank Pre-Game Show, and 9:30 p.m. on Saturday night.

Live Audio & Stats
Live Audio Link here.
Live Stats here.

Next Series:
After the trip to Alaska, the Mavs will return to Baxter Arena for the first home seires of the year, facing Vermont (Hockey East) on Friday, Oct. 21 and Saturday, Oct. 22. Both games will begin at 7:07 p.m.

UNO Hockey on TV 2016-17

While most people who read this blog are going to be AT the UNO Hockey games (at least the home ones!), I like to do a roundup post each season that has the TV schedule so you can either catch games that you can't make it to, or re-watch awesome match-ups.

I'll be updating this post as the season goes on as additional games on TV are announced. As of this update (Sept. 29, 2016), the Mavs will be featured in 10 televised games (not including NCHC.tv).

NCHC.tv
We LOVE our NCHC.tv subscription. We have the full conference subscription, so it allows us to watch most of the UNO Hockey away games as well as matchups between other conference foes.

According to the NCHC news release, this year's conference annual pass will have access to more than 130 games throughout the season, including almost all conference and home non-conference games. It will also include all exhibition games and the NCHC Tournament quarterfinal games.

The cost for a conference annual pass for this season is $104.95 -- making the cost less than $1 a game. (There was an earlybird special in August that was even less -- watch for that next year.) Or you can get a conference monthly pass for $24.95/month.

You can also get a school-specific annual pass (for example, JUST UNO Hockey games) for $89.95, or a school-specific monthly pass for $18.95 per month.

If you have questions about NCHC.tv, contact NeuLion at nchctv@neulion.com.

Please note: If you purchase a school-specific annual pass or monthly pass, these subscriptions automatically renew each year unless cancelled.

All games shown on NCHC.tv during the upcoming season will be in high definition (HD).

New this year: Viewers with subscriptions will be able to watch NCHC.tv on both Apple TV and Roku devices. (Last year, we mirrored our NCHC.tv feed to our TV using our iPad and Apple TV, but this year, you can watch it natively on the tv). Or, you can stream games from NCHC.tv on any desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile device with an Internet connection.

Catch a preview of NCHC.tv here:



You can watch The NCHC State of the Conference address on Thursday, Sept. 22 here:
http://www.nchc.tv/nchc/schedule

CBS Sports Network
One thing I don't like about games shown on CBS Sports Network is that these games are then not available on NCHC.tv.

We asked the NCHC about this, and this was the answer:

The short answer:
"The CBSSN contract was created and signed before NCHC.tv existed and CBSSN wanted the digital rights, so they have them."

Here's the UNO Hockey games that will be on CBS Sports Network:

• Friday, Jan. 27 – UNO at Denver, 8:30 p.m. Central
• Friday, March 3 – Denver at UNO, 7:30 p.m. Central

NET Nebraska/Fox College Sports

Four of UNO's home games will be televised on NET Nebraska, with funding coming from the UNO Office of Academic and Student Affairs.

The games will include:

• Friday, Nov. 18 – Minnesota-Duluth at UNO, 7 p.m. (Fox College Sports)
• Friday, Jan. 6 – North Dakota at UNO, 7 p.m.
• Saturday, Jan. 21 – Miami at UNO, 7:30 p.m. (Fox College Sports)
• Friday, Feb. 10 – Western Michigan at UNO, 7 p.m.

American Sports Network
This channel, available over the air in Omaha, will feature four UNO games:

• Friday, Oct. 21 – Vermont at UNO, 7:07 p.m.
• Friday, Dec. 2 – UNO at Wisconsin, 7:05 p.m.
• Saturday, Jan. 7 – North Dakota at UNO, 7:07 p.m.
• Friday, Jan. 13 – UNO at Colorado College, 8:37 p.m.

Here's the link to the NCHC full TV conference schedule too:
http://www.nchchockey.com/tvschedule

2016-2017 UNO Hockey Schedule

UNO released the 2016-17 hockey schedule on Wednesday. We had started this blog post back in February to try and piece together what it would look like, but now we know!

Saturday, Oct. 8 -- 7:07 p.m. -- Exhibition (opponent TBD)
Friday, Oct. 14 -- 7:05 p.m. -- vs Alaska Anchorage (Brice Alaska Gold Rush) (Fairbanks, AK)
Saturday, Oct. 15 -- 10:05 p.m. -- vs. Alaska (Brice Alaska Gold Rush) (Fairbanks, AK)
Friday, Oct. 21 -- 7:07 p.m. -- Vermont
Saturday, Oct. 22 -- 7:07 p.m. -- Vermont
Friday, Oct. 28 -- 7:07 p.m. -- UMass Lowell
Saturday, Oct. 29 -- 7:07 p.m. -- UMass Lowell

Friday, Nov. 4 -- 7:07 p.m. -- Colorado College
Saturday, Nov. 5 -- 7:07 p.m. -- Colorado College
Friday, Nov. 11 -- 6:35 p.m. -- Miami (Oxford, OH)
Saturday, Nov. 12 -- 6:05 p.m. -- Miami (Oxford, OH)
Friday, Nov. 18 -- 7:07 p.m. -- Minnesota Duluth
Saturday, Nov. 19 -- 7:07 p.m. -- Minnesota Duluth
Friday, Nov. 25 -- 6:07 p.m. -- Northern Michigan (Marquette, MI)
Saturday, Nov. 26 -- 6:07 p.m. -- Northern Michigan (Marquette, MI)

Friday, Dec. 2 -- 7:05 p.m. -- Wisconsin (Madison, WI)
Saturday, Dec. 3 -- 7:05 p.m. -- Wisconsin (Madison, WI)
Friday, Dec. 9 -- 7:37 p.m. -- St. Cloud State (St. Cloud, MN)
Saturday, Dec. 10 -- 7:07 p.m. -- St. Cloud State (St. Cloud, MN)
Friday, Dec. 30 -- 7:07 p.m. -- Lake Superior State
Saturday, Dec. 31 -- 4:07 p.m. -- Lake Superior State

Friday, Jan. 6 -- 7:07 p.m. -- North Dakota
Saturday, Jan. 7 -- 7:07 p.m. -- North Dakota
Friday, Jan. 13 -- 8:37 p.m. -- Colorado College (Colorado Springs, CO)
Saturday, Jan. 14 -- 8:07 p.m. -- Colorado College (Colorado Springs, CO)
Friday, Jan. 20 -- 7:07 p.m. -- Miami
Saturday, Jan. 21 -- 7:07 p.m. -- Miami
Friday, Jan. 27 -- 8:36 p.m. -- Denver (Denver, CO)
Saturday, Jan. 28 -- 8:06 p.m. -- Denver (Denver, CO)

Friday, Feb. 3 -- 7:07 p.m. -- Minnesota Duluth (Duluth, MN)
Saturday, Feb. 4 -- 7:07 p.m. -- Minnesota Duluth (Duluth, MN)
Friday, Feb. 10 -- 7:07 p.m. -- Western Michigan
Saturday, Feb. 11 -- 7:07 p.m. -- Western Michigan
Friday, Feb. 24 -- 7:37 p.m. -- North Dakota (Grand Forks, ND)
Saturday, Feb. 25 -- 7:07 p.m. -- North Dakota (Grand Fords, ND)

Friday, March 3 -- 7:07 p.m. -- Denver
Saturday, March 4 -- 7:07 p.m. -- Denver

Friday, March 10 -- NCHC Quarterfinals (Game 1)
Saturday, March 11 -- NCHC Quarterfinals (Game 2)
Sunday, March 12 -- NCHC Quarterfinals (Game 3, if needed)

Friday, March 17 -- NCHC Frozen Semifinals
Saturday, March 18 -- NCHC Frozen Faceoff Final/Third Place Game


Home games in BOLD.

Here's an article about UNO appearing in the 2016 Brice Alaska Gold Rush Tournament alongside UAA, UAF and Canisius:
http://www.alaskananooks.com/news/2016/2/12/MHOCKEY_0212164405.aspx

Omaha vs. North Dakota: Jan. 15-16, 2016 in Grand Forks

The Mavs haven't been on the road for a series since late November, but they started the trip to Grand Forks early this week as President Obama's visit to Baxter Arena on Wednesday left them without a place to practice. So they headed up to Sioux Falls and practiced there before going on to Grand Forks.

Sioux Falls rolls out the red carpet for practice. UNO on the road early because of the President's visit. pic.twitter.com/ZcZHKgBL1S

— Maverick Hockey (@UNO_Hockey) January 13, 2016

Evan Weninger's injury in the Denver series last week looks to be a big factor this weekend. Weninger suffered a "lower body injury" (ankle) in the Friday game and didn't make the travel roster. So it will be Kirk Thompson in net for the Mavs on Friday night.

The Mavs are 4-5-1 in conference play -- fifth place in the NCHC (14-5-1 overall) -- after last weekend's sweep by Denver. The Mavs need to steal some points in Grand Forks this weekend, although it's going to be a tough task. North Dakota has more than double the number of conference points as Omaha (27 points for UND to 13 for UNO) and is 9-1-0 in conference (18-2-2 overall).

Here's the round-up of this week's media.

The Mavs dropped from #6 to #9 in the national polls after last weekend. Here's the Omaha World-Herald story about that:
http://www.omaha.com/uno/uno-hockey-drops-to-no-in-rankings/article_8ec2477c-b8c8-11e5-8151-276e63bc6046.html

OMavs.com also has a story about the poll results:
http://www.omavs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=31400&ATCLID=210627117

And here's the OMavs.com story about the weekend series:
http://www.omavs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=31400&ATCLID=210635515

Here's the World-Herald's preview story about the series, with a profile of Kirk Thompson:
http://www.omaha.com/uno/with-evan-weninger-s-injury-uno-hockey-team-glad-it/article_f73d868e-e240-58a8-bdd7-b642a398f3f4.html

With Evan Weninger’s injury, the UNO hockey team is glad it can call on Kirk Thompson. https://t.co/Wv702cycBp pic.twitter.com/2K4gjNLnmO

— World-Herald Mavs (@OWHmavs) January 15, 2016

Game Times:
Friday night's game is at 7:37 p.m. Central
Saturday night's game is at 7:07 p.m. Central

TV Coverage:
Both games will be available on NCHC.tv. Saturday night's game will also be on Fox College Sports (DirecTV Channel 608).

Radio Coverage:
Both games will be broadcast on 1180 AM (1180 The Zone 2). Dave Ahlers will provide radio play-by-play and Terry Leahy will provide color commentary. Coverage begins at 7 p.m. on Friday night and 6:30 p.m. Saturday night with the First National Bank Pre-Game Show.