It’s Friday, February 1st, which means another college hockey weekend is upon us. Let’s take a look at this NCHC matchup between the Mavericks from Nebraska-Omaha and the Western Michigan Broncos.
At first glance, this isn’t that intriguing of a series. The Mavericks are 7-15-2 on the season, 3-10-1 in conference play, and losers of 5 out of their last 6. The Broncos, on the other hand, are 15-8-1, 7-5-1 in conference play, and are 11-2-1 in their last 13 games. The Broncos are battling back to the top of the NCHC while the Mavericks are holding down the cellar. This has the makings of a classic trap game for the red hot Broncos.
These two teams have already met once this season when WMU hosted Nebraska-Omaha in Kalamazoo back in November. Western took care of business winning 7-2 in the first game while the Mavs won the second game 4-2. That is still Omaha’s only road win on the season (1-10-1).
Keys for the Broncos:
WMU might be the hottest team in the country over the last few months. They had a 10 game unbeaten streak, won the Las Vegas Invitational, lost a tough road series to #1 St. Cloud State, and swept then #4 Denver last weekend. They currently sit at #8 in the USCHO rankings jumping up 5 spots from last week.
The key for WMU as of late has been their penalty kill. Last Friday the Broncos killed 6 penalties against Denver including a 5 minute major and on Saturday they killed 7 of 8 penalties. Reigning NCHC Defenseman of the week, Cam Lee, has played a big role on the penalty kill and we should look for him to have another big weekend.
Goaltending has also been key for the Broncos. Senior, Trevor Gorsuch, is 13-4-1 on the season and is coming off a weekend where he only allowed two goals and held a save percentage of .967. He should be able to keep things close for WMU if the offense has any struggles.
The most important thing for Western Michigan is to not buy into the hype. These are two games that you just can’t lose, especially when you’re inside the top 10 for the first time this season. If they can stay collected and play their brand of hockey, they shouldn’t have a problem coming back to Lawson with two wins.
Keys for the Mavericks:
The Mavericks have struggled this season in conference play. Their 3 wins have come against quality opponents though in Miami OH, WMU, and North Dakota. They also have a big non-conference sweep of #16 Arizona State. Although they haven’t played great hockey this season they have proved that they’re still capable and should be taken as a serious opponent.
If the Mavericks want to win this series they need to strike early and make WMU play from behind. In their win against the Broncos earlier in the season they scored 3 first period goals to send the Broncos into a panic. If they can strike early and get momentum they could be looking at a potential upset for the weekend.
It should be a good matchup on the ice this weekend in Omaha as these two conference opponents square off. We look forward to recapping this weekends NCHC action for you on Monday. Until then, enjoy this weekends hockey and follow us on twitter @StudentUHockey.