OMAHA, Neb. — No. 8 Nebraska-Omaha got back to its winning formula Friday night, scoring first, and they wasted no time doing it.
Senior Brian Cooper scored just 24 seconds into the game and the Mavericks never gave up the lead, going on to win 4-2 over No. 6 Minnesota-Duluth.
The opening score came after Jake Guentzel took advantage of a loose puck that slid deep behind the Bulldogs’ net. The junior found Cooper on his seventh assist this season.
UNO pushed their lead to two, like they had in all six of their previous wins this season, when Fredrik Olofsson got a piece of the puck on a backhander near the crease from a slow rolling shot sent in by Grant Gallo.
“If you look at the two goals they got, one was kind of a bleeder [and] the first one was a nice goal,” UMD coach Scott Sandelin said. “We knew that’s what they do a lot of, attack from behind.”
Despite never leading, the Bulldogs controlled much of the momentum after getting on the board in the second period. Austin Farley finished a rebound from a Willie Raskob shot at 17:04 in the second period to make it 2-1.
UMD outshot UNO 17-9 in the second and then 19-6 in the third period, ultimately testing Mavericks freshman goaltender Evan Weninger with 47 shots.
In just his fifth career start, the Saskatoon, Saskatchewan native made 45 saves, placing him in a tie for the sixth most single-game saves in school history. It was the first time Weninger started over Kirk Thompson on a Friday, who played every series opener prior.
“[Goaltending coach] Leigh Mendelson just talked about the rotation of Kirk [Thompson] starting on Friday and Evan starting on Saturday was the bulk of last week,” UNO coach Dean Blais said. “And then you just have to kind of go with your gut feeling that Evan will do the job tonight.”
Austin Ortega pushed the Mavericks’ cushion back to two goals when he got a piece of Ian Brady’s shot that soared in from the left wing circle. It was the junior’s eighth goal of the season and ultimately his fifth game winner, giving him 17 for his career. He’s just six away from the all-time NCAA career record holder Brett Holder from Colorado College who had 23.
It was Kyle Osterberg who made it possible, after cleaning up a blast out in front of the net by Willie Corrin to make it 3-2. The Bulldogs had many chances to equalize, but couldn’t finish them.
“You got to score,” Sandelin said. “You don’t get a lot of great opportunities and we had certainly three breakaways and numerous chances. We got to finish them.”
The Mavericks iced the game when Jake Randolph gained control of the puck and walked it in on UMD’s empty net with less than two minutes left in the game. It took some pressure away from a UNO team that was coming off the wrong end of a stinger sweep at Western Michigan.
“There’s three points out there and [if] you go 0-4 to start in league, no matter what you’ve done nonconference, that is digging yourself a hole,” Blais said. “Tomorrow night is another important game, but this is certainly an important game tonight, too.”
While the Mavericks will try to remain undefeated in their new arena, the Bulldogs will look to avoid suffering the same fate UNO did last week.
“Obviously, [I] didn’t like the first shift [and] I thought for the better part of the rest of the game we certainly had plenty of opportunities to score,” Sandelin said. “We squandered those and the end result is we lost. There’s no moral victories, but I liked a lot of things we did, certainly in the last two periods.”
