Its Back! The 2011-12 UNO Season Thread!

[Red Cows]

Re: Its Back! The 2011-12 UNO Season Thread!

I just hope BSU gets to play UNO at Omaha in the first round.

There is an element of our fans that would just as soon commit hari kiri (ritualistic suicide for all the non-scholastic types).

Some snide comments from the Mavpuck board about last weekend with BSU:

"B - O - R - I - N - G . . . . . ."

"I was not a big fan of all the conference re-alignment, but if it will get us away from this sleeper of a series opponent, then why wait a year. Let's just do it now."

"Anybody wanna pick a fish up tonight? I'd rather stay home and watch the DU-CC game on the satellite...."

"In fact if they are ever scheduled again, folks should return their tickets from the package en-mass."

"I'd rather smash my hand with a somewhat large ball pein hammer than go thru what I witnessed last night."

[gmann]

There is an element of our fans that would just as soon commit hari kiri (ritualistic suicide for all the non-scholastic types).

Some snide comments from the Mavpuck board about last weekend with BSU:

"B - O - R - I - N - G . . . . . ."

"I was not a big fan of all the conference re-alignment, but if it will get us away from this sleeper of a series opponent, then why wait a year. Let's just do it now."

"Anybody wanna pick a fish up tonight? I'd rather stay home and watch the DU-CC game on the satellite...."

"In fact if they are ever scheduled again, folks should return their tickets from the package en-mass."

"I'd rather smash my hand with a somewhat large ball pein hammer than go thru what I witnessed last night."

Good, then BSU will end the season of UNO in Omaha in an empty arena.

No offense but considering UNO has the lowest collective hockey IQ score of all fans within the WCHA I'll take these comments with a grain of salt.

Good luck the rest of the season.

[Red Cows]

Re: Its Back! The 2011-12 UNO Season Thread!

Good, then BSU will end the season of UNO in Omaha in an empty arena.

No offense but considering UNO has the lowest collective hockey IQ score of all fans within the WCHA I'll take these comments with a grain of salt.

Good luck the rest of the season.

For the record, I don't personally feel that way, by the way. I'm for playing any team that makes us work hard and earn whatever we get. If you're who we get, you're who we get.

Some of those hockey IQ challenged people sit around us from time to time and I have a hard time refuting that one. I'll say this, the core fans certainly did not fall off the turnip truck. We have some idiocy because of sheer numbers and a local news media that is very hockey clueless, despite their "best" efforts. UNO hockey is somewhere on about the same rung, or, a bit higher, than Omaha Stormchasers Baseball where they are concerned. Being in the NCHC will help things along there, I think, in the future.

[gmann]

For the record, I don't personally feel that way, by the way. I'm for playing any team that makes us work hard and earn whatever we get. If you're who we get, you're who we get.

Some of those hockey IQ challenged people sit around us from time to time and I have a hard time refuting that one. I'll say this, the core fans certainly did not fall off the turnip truck. We have some idiocy because of sheer numbers and a local news media that is very hockey clueless, despite their "best" efforts. UNO hockey is somewhere on about the same rung, or, a bit higher, than Omaha Stormchasers Baseball where they are concerned. Being in the NCHC will help things along there, I think, in the future.

Don't worry. UAH has (by far) the lowest hockey IQ in all college hockey.

[Red Cows]

Re: Its Back! The 2011-12 UNO Season Thread!

Supposedly, an announcement is forthcoming early this week by UNO and the Omaha Lancers of the long rumored game(s) to be played at TD Ameritrade here in Omaha.

This hockey event is to be held on Saturday afternoon, February 9th, 2013. Dunno the start time. The early game is a USHL tilt between the Omaha Lancers and the Lincoln Stars. 45 minutes after that game is over, UNO will face-off with North Dakota. Tickets are $30.00 each and are good for both games. Mutual of Omaha is the sponsor of event, which is to be called "Battles on Ice". The preceding info is from a Lincoln Stars blog:

http://www.lincolnstarsblog.com/

Considering the the early card is Lancers/Stars, they might have been better off calling it "Battles in the Stands". The fan bases of these two teams do not get along very well and I bet they show well for this event. Alcohol flows freely at both their respective arenas and the first time anybody ever took me to a Lancers game (back at the old, now demolished Aksarben Coliseum) I was told that going to the game was more of an excuse to drink beer than anything else. It wouldn't be a USHL game, either, without fisticuffs on the ice to incite the fans, too. The Lancers have taken 647 penalty minutes this season in 41 games. That ought to tell you a little bit about what a USHL game is like. That's over 15 minutes per game. The Stars have taken a mind boggling 926 minutes in only 39 games! They are skating a man down more than 24 minutes per game! No team in the WCHA averages as many penalty minutes per game as the Lancers, let alone the Stars. They fight like the Charleston Chiefs.

Between the Lancers fans and the Stars fans from nearby Lincoln, I would not be shocked to see their respective fan bases make up upwards of half the crowd. The Stars lead the USHL in attendance and currently average 3866 per night. The Lancers average 3076 per night. That would have the Stars in the top 20 of NCAA D-1 attendance and the Lancers in the top 30. There is not a lot of Lancer/UNO crossover in their respective fandoms, either. Evidence of that is taking a look at attendance figures on the few nights that both teams are playing at home--in separate arenas within walking distance of each other (and from TD Ameritrade as well).

If you are a Fighting Sioux fan (back using that term, I guess) and see this, can you weigh in on whether North Dakota has ever played an outdoor game before? UNO certainly has not. I am guessing that Sioux fans will show up for this one in force. I am going to be interested in seeing how the school handles this one as far as my season tickets go. I would be shocked if it isn't part of the ticket package. I'm torn about what kind of weather to wish for.

FYI, the timing of this is no accident. The U.S. Figure Skating Championships are being held in Omaha January 19th-27th, 2013 at the Clink here in Omaha and I have heard that the company that is putting in the 2 temporary practice rinks for that event will be charged with rink set-up for the hockey event as well.

[bigmrg74]

Re: Its Back! The 2011-12 UNO Season Thread!

There is an element of our fans that would just as soon commit hari kiri (ritualistic suicide for all the non-scholastic types).

Some snide comments from the Mavpuck board about last weekend with BSU:

"B - O - R - I - N - G . . . . . ."

"I was not a big fan of all the conference re-alignment, but if it will get us away from this sleeper of a series opponent, then why wait a year. Let's just do it now."

"Anybody wanna pick a fish up tonight? I'd rather stay home and watch the DU-CC game on the satellite...."

"In fact if they are ever scheduled again, folks should return their tickets from the package en-mass."

"I'd rather smash my hand with a somewhat large ball pein hammer than go thru what I witnessed last night."

I've said it once, and I'll say it again when my team has been facing a team that lacks that extra bit of whatever makes a team special and exciting to see. You're not buying a ticket to watch the team in the other jersey, you're buying the tickets to go see the team in your jersey.

[Red Cows]

Re: Its Back! The 2011-12 UNO Season Thread!

I've said it once, and I'll say it again when my team has been facing a team that lacks that extra bit of whatever makes a team special and exciting to see. You're not buying a ticket to watch the team in the other jersey, you're buying the tickets to go see the team in your jersey.

I agree.

I, for one, enjoy watching "system" teams play. Anybody remember Pete Carril and his old Princeton Tigers basketball teams? That Georgetown/Princeton 1989 NCAA game while Georgetown and Alonzo Mourning were the #1 team in country is still the closest a #16 has ever come to beating a #1.

Every time I have see Bemidji play, it has reminded me of that to some degree.

[MavRick]

Re: Its Back! The 2011-12 UNO Season Thread!

Good, then BSU will end the season of UNO in Omaha in an empty arena.

No offense but considering UNO has the lowest collective hockey IQ score of all fans within the WCHA I'll take these comments with a grain of salt.

Good luck the rest of the season.

Your fans threw garbage - literally threw garbage - around the stands during the game on Saturday night. You lose the thread.

That said, I thought Bemidji played a more interesting game when it was in town and obviously has had the nuts the last few weeks. They'll be scary for whoever they get, just like they were last year at playoff time.

[Red Cows]

Re: Its Back! The 2011-12 UNO Season Thread!

That's an interesting topic- and a pretty good list for only being a D1 program for 13 seasons.

Michigan's list is filled with quite a few teams- many like Kent State, Ohio, St.Louis and Illinois-Chicago that were part of the old CCHA and are now defunct. Penn (1975) Illinois (1943) and California (1949) also had teams that do not compete at D1 any more.

The Wolverines have played a total of 47 of the 57 other D1 teams currently competing. (Michigan makes 58.)

The other teams they have not played are:
1. Minnesota State-WCHA
2.U-Mass-HEA
3. Vermont-HEA

The other teams are all part of the AHA and the year they went D1:
4. RIT (2005) conference affiliation since 2006
5. Robert Morris (2004) conference affiliation since inception
6.Holy Cross (1966) conference affiliation since 1998
7.Canisius (1998) conference affiliation since inception
8. American International (1948) conference affiliation since 1998
9.Army (1903) has had conference affiliation twice w/ ECAC prior to 1991, current affiliation since 1999
10.Sacred Heart (1993) conference affiliation since 1998

I think with the move to the BTHC and the need to fill many non-conference game slots, we'll see more of the teams we haven't seen before from the AHA. Ironically, Red Berenson has only coached against 46 of the 57 teams currently in D1. He has not coached against Dartmouth for instance, although Michigan has played them in their past. Michigan played Bentley and Union for the first time this season. I am surprised that Michigan had not played Army, AIC or Holy Cross in the past since they seem to be the teams with the longest D1 history in the AHA.

The shocker on your list, I guess is Minnesota State Mankato. They aren't that far away from you, either. My thinking there is probably colored by the fact that we've played them 28 times and they are the only team we've played every season since our program started. Of course, they are easily the closest D-1 program to us, and, they are, of course, the Purple Cows. The two schools even have a traveling trophy.

Nobody really glares at me in Mankato when I bring my cowbells. At Amsoil last year practically everybody turned around and stared at us.

FWIW, UNO has even played a couple of now defunct programs, Findlay and Wayne State as well.

[streaker]

Re: Its Back! The 2011-12 UNO Season Thread!

The shocker on your list, I guess is Minnesota State Mankato. They aren't that far away from you, either. My thinking there is probably colored by the fact that we've played them 28 times and they are the only team we've played every season since our program started. Of course, they are easily the closest D-1 program to us, and, they are, of course, the Purple Cows. The two schools even have a traveling trophy.

Nobody really glares at me in Mankato when I bring my cowbells. At Amsoil last year practically everybody turned around and stared at us.

FWIW, UNO has even played a couple of now defunct programs, Findlay and Wayne State as well.

I don't know how Michigan decides to schedule their nonconference games. I do know they prefer to play most of them at home. Minnesota State isn't a HUGE surprise since they were not a D1 program when Michigan was in the WCHA and the opportunity to play them has been limited in tournaments, including the NCAA tournament. Army was the one I was most surprised with since their program was around since 1903 when there were only a handful of programs organized.

[Red Cows]

Re: Its Back! The 2011-12 UNO Season Thread!

Must win game tonight, needless to say.

Just bought tickets for friends coming to town for next weekend's Gopher games. There are very few ticket pairs together available downstairs for Friday night (<10) and there are only singles downstairs on Saturday night, and, not a whole lot of them, either.

The upper deck is down to 600-700 tickets available Saturday night, mostly at the end of the rink, and it looks like they might have to "undrape" that night, maybe. Friday night upstairs availability is still pretty good. We are looking at pretty nice crowds both nights with Saturday almost certainly being north of 10,000.

[JW Tigers]

Re: Its Back! The 2011-12 UNO Season Thread!

Good job by UNO tonight to battle back and earn a hard fought two points. During the second period, CC was able to open things up and really looked like they could run away with the game, but the Mavs hung tough and settled down for the 3rd. These two teams play a very different style, but they are about as even as it gets.

[Red Cows]

Re: Its Back! The 2011-12 UNO Season Thread!

Basically, the story of the night was UNO won the 1st & 3rd periods in a big way and CC won the 2nd period in a big way. Pretty wild game game listening to it on the radio.

UNO's radio announcers are Dave Ahlers, who is also the Director of Athletic Media Relations at UNO and Terry Leahy is the color man, who is a long time Omaha radio personality (for a station that does not broadcast UNO hockey games) and has been the color man for every UNO game ever broadcast.

Tonight, those guys spent almost the entire game b*tching about the officials, not without some justification, particularly if you are asking Coach Blais about it this weekend.

One thing, in particular, that was getting their ire (besides two more UNO goal reviews), was that with almost every face-off held, the UNO player involved got tossed from it. And, they were right, it was happening almost every face-off.

This got me to wondering if Coach Blais has his players doing something or another, maybe specifically, that is precipitating this on face-offs and whether this is a hallmark of his teams or not. I guess I had noticed this myself in a vague sort of way this year and last but I don't listen to too many games on the radio and hadn't really realized how overtly noticeable this has apparently become.

Are there any Fighting Sioux fans out there that can speak to this as to whether this was a hallmark of his teams up there? I confess that I never played hockey so perhaps there is some nuance to all this somebody can enlighten me about. Is there something he might have his players doing that is bringing this about, on purpose or not?

[JW Tigers]

Re: Its Back! The 2011-12 UNO Season Thread!

Basically, the story of the night was UNO won the 1st & 3rd periods in a big way and CC won the 2nd period in a big way. Pretty wild game game listening to it on the radio.

UNO's radio announcers are Dave Ahlers, who is also the Director of Athletic Media Relations at UNO and Terry Leahy is the color man, who is a long time Omaha radio personality (for a station that does not broadcast UNO hockey games) and has been the color man for every UNO game ever broadcast.

Tonight, those guys spent almost the entire game b*tching about the officials, not without some justification, particularly if you are asking Coach Blais about it this weekend.

One thing, in particular, that was getting their ire (besides two more UNO goal reviews), was that with almost every face-off held, the UNO player involved got tossed from it. And, they were right, it was happening almost every face-off.

This got me to wondering if Coach Blais has his players doing something or another, maybe specifically, that is precipitating this on face-offs and whether this is a hallmark of his teams or not. I guess I had noticed this myself in a vague sort of way this year and last but I don't listen to too many games on the radio and hadn't really realized how overtly noticeable this has apparently become.

Are there any Fighting Sioux fans out there that can speak to this as to whether this was a hallmark of his teams up there? I confess that I never played hockey so perhaps there is some nuance to all this somebody can enlighten me about. Is there something he might have his players doing that is bringing this about, on purpose or not?

From the perspective of a CC fan...there have been a TON of reviews after goals this season at CC for both teams. I don't know if that is a WCHA thing, or a World Arena thing, or whatever, but I have noticed more this year (again, for BOTH teams) than I can ever remember. As a home team example, CC scored against UAA with 2.8 seconds left to win a game, looked pretty clear cut, and there was still a long review before confirming the goal.

As for Dean Blais: He's one of the best coaches in the game, and there is a very short list of coaches who I have as much respect for. (Jerry York is about the only one who comes to mind for me.) But he has ALWAYS *****ed about the officials, and rarely seems to be ok with a call against his team, whether UND or UNO. Yet at the same time, his teams always have a chippy side to them and they do a lot of crap behind the play, so I don't see that he has much to gripe about. As for tonight, every time a UNO player got kicked out of the faceoff circle, they were hacking or holding a stick, or jostling for position too early. The officials did a good job both nights, and I don't see what the announcers were complaining about.

The officials didn't at all affect the outcome of either game due to bad or missed calls. They were just fine.

[LincolnMav]

Re: Its Back! The 2011-12 UNO Season Thread!

Very pleased to get out the Springs with 2 pts! Huge huge weekend coming up with the rodents. We'll find out just how poised the boys are to make a late season run. We need to rock the CLink this weekend. GO MAVS!