{"id":151252,"date":"2025-02-12T14:00:49","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T20:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=151252"},"modified":"2025-02-11T23:24:26","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T05:24:26","slug":"this-week-in-nchc-hockey-omaha-finding-growth-over-second-half-looking-at-late-push-for-ncaa-tournament-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/12\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-omaha-finding-growth-over-second-half-looking-at-late-push-for-ncaa-tournament-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in NCHC Hockey: Omaha finding growth over second half, looking at late push for NCAA tournament bid"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Simon Latkoczy has been a top goalie in the NCHC this season (photo: Mark Kuhlmann).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s strange to think the hottest home form in the country, at this point in the season, belongs to a team on the outside looking in with regards to a NCAA tournament bid.<\/p>\n

But as paradoxical as that is for Omaha, 27th in the PairWise rankings with a month left in the regular season, it should also be food for thought for the Mavericks\u2019 upcoming opponents.<\/p>\n

UNO\u2019s 4-1 home win Friday over Minnesota Duluth, paired with a 5-2 Mavericks victory on Saturday, saw them bump their current home winning streak to seven games. The Mavs have additionally won eight consecutive NCHC games on home ice, also tops among all teams this season.<\/p>\n

The Mavericks haven\u2019t lost at home in this calendar year. You\u2019d have to go back to Dec. 13, in the first game of a series against nonconference opponent Lindenwood, to find the last time UNO tasted defeat at Baxter Arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think one of the words we\u2019ve been using a lot throughout the season is \u2018growth,\u2019 and it\u2019s always nice to see the individual growth, that collective growth, take place in the second half of the season,\u201d Mavericks coach Mike Gabinet said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur approach has stayed very consistent, very similar and I think that\u2019s one of the things that\u2019s important to do, whether you\u2019re successful or you\u2019re battling adversity. You want to stay consistent with how you approach things and your day-to-day focus, and I think that has served us really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two Zach Urdahl goals Friday helped UNO put away a Duluth team that was two weeks removed from a creditable home split with defending national champion Denver, in two one-goal games. On Saturday, the Bulldogs outshot UNO 52-29 but conceded goals to four different UNO skaters \u2014 Brady Risk scored two, giving him three for the weekend \u2014 but were left frustrated by reigning NCHC goaltender of the month, Simon Latkoczy. The junior now has five games this season with 40 or more saves, and two with 50-plus.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been fantastic,\u201d Gabinet said. \u201cYour goalie is going to have to make a couple key saves in certain key moments of the game, and he has done that consistently for us. To see his growth, too, even from last season to this year, he\u2019s constantly getting better and he\u2019s been tremendous for us here all season long.\u201d<\/p>\n

UNO was fresh off its own series with Denver, facing the Pioneers in their own building. After the Mavericks took a conference-record 16-round overtime shootout Jan. 31, they scored the first two goals the following night but went on to lose 11-2.<\/p>\n

\u201cHold on to the two big points we got there, and move on from the loss on Saturday,\u201d Gabinet said when asked what he wanted his team to take from that series in Colorado, heading into the UMD games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s part of the ups and downs you\u2019ll go through during the season. You\u2019re going to have some big wins and then you\u2019ll have some losses, and it\u2019s all about how you respond to the situation that you\u2019re put in, and I thought our team did a great job on Monday of getting back to work and finding ways to improve our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

UNO has six games left in the regular season, four of them on the road. After visiting third-ranked Western Michigan this weekend, the Mavericks will have one last week off before hosting No. 10 Arizona State Feb. 28 and March 1, before wrapping up at No. 17 North Dakota the following weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll maintain our consistency in how we do things,\u201d Gabinet said of his team\u2019s approach the rest of the way. \u201cWe don\u2019t really change much week-to-week, and obviously we\u2019re preparing a certain way for the opponent we face that weekend, but just keeping that belief, keeping that growth mindset, keeping that work and doing-the-work mentality and following that process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got good guys who are committed to being coached and learning, who want to be coached and want to find ways to improve. They\u2019re taking personal responsibility to get better, and it\u2019s just really been fun to watch the guys\u2019 improvement from the start of the year until now. It\u2019s been tremendous.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s strange to think the hottest home form in the country, at this point in the season, belongs to a team on the outside looking in with regards to a NCAA tournament bid. But as paradoxical as that is for Omaha, 27th in the PairWise rankings with a month left in the regular season, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":148905,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[810],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThis Week in NCHC Hockey: Omaha finding growth over second half, looking at late push for NCAA tournament bid - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It\u2019s strange to think the hottest home form in the country, at this point in the season, belongs to a team on the outside looking in with regards to a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151252\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Week in NCHC Hockey: Omaha finding growth over second half, looking at late push for NCAA tournament bid - College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s strange to think the hottest home form in the country, at this point in the season, belongs to a team on the outside looking in with regards to a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151252\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialUSCHO\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-12T20:00:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-12T05:24:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/latkoczy_omaha.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1416\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"797\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew Semisch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@USCHO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@USCHO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matthew Semisch\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/12\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-omaha-finding-growth-over-second-half-looking-at-late-push-for-ncaa-tournament-bid\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/12\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-omaha-finding-growth-over-second-half-looking-at-late-push-for-ncaa-tournament-bid\/\",\"name\":\"This Week in NCHC Hockey: Omaha finding growth over second half, looking at late push for NCAA tournament bid - College Hockey | USCHO.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/12\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-omaha-finding-growth-over-second-half-looking-at-late-push-for-ncaa-tournament-bid\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/12\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-omaha-finding-growth-over-second-half-looking-at-late-push-for-ncaa-tournament-bid\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/latkoczy_omaha.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-02-12T20:00:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-12T05:24:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/59bfc7fca1ba7bf3b039ebf2724060ae\"},\"description\":\"It\u2019s strange to think the hottest home form in the country, at this point in the season, belongs to a team on the outside looking in with regards to a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/12\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-omaha-finding-growth-over-second-half-looking-at-late-push-for-ncaa-tournament-bid\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/12\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-omaha-finding-growth-over-second-half-looking-at-late-push-for-ncaa-tournament-bid\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/12\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-omaha-finding-growth-over-second-half-looking-at-late-push-for-ncaa-tournament-bid\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/latkoczy_omaha.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/latkoczy_omaha.jpg\",\"width\":1416,\"height\":797,\"caption\":\"Simon Latkoczy has been a top goalie in the NCHC this season (photo: Mark Kuhlmann).\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/12\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-omaha-finding-growth-over-second-half-looking-at-late-push-for-ncaa-tournament-bid\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"This Week in NCHC Hockey: Omaha finding growth over second half, looking at late push for NCAA tournament bid\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/\",\"name\":\"College Hockey | USCHO.com\",\"description\":\"Men's and Women's D-I and D-III College Hockey News, Features, Scores, Statistics, Fan Forum, Blogs\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/59bfc7fca1ba7bf3b039ebf2724060ae\",\"name\":\"Matthew Semisch\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/800654cc217d997dd53c63231da54899\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1cf69ccdebc1e5f39c969dbc92873bc6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1cf69ccdebc1e5f39c969dbc92873bc6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Matthew Semisch\"},\"description\":\"NCHC Columnist Matthew Semisch joined USCHO in 2007 as a arena reporter covering Omaha. He later became a WCHA columnist for USCHO before taking a similar role covering the NCHC. He currently works as the sports editor at the Bottineau Courant in Bottineau, N.D.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/author\/msemisch\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"This Week in NCHC Hockey: Omaha finding growth over second half, looking at late push for NCAA tournament bid - College Hockey | USCHO.com","description":"It\u2019s strange to think the hottest home form in the country, at this point in the season, belongs to a team on the outside looking in with regards to a","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151252","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"This Week in NCHC Hockey: Omaha finding growth over second half, looking at late push for NCAA tournament bid - College Hockey | USCHO.com","og_description":"It\u2019s strange to think the hottest home form in the country, at this point in the season, belongs to a team on the outside looking in with regards to a","og_url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151252","og_site_name":"College Hockey | USCHO.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialUSCHO\/","article_published_time":"2025-02-12T20:00:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-02-12T05:24:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1416,"height":797,"url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/latkoczy_omaha.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Matthew Semisch","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@USCHO","twitter_site":"@USCHO","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Matthew Semisch","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/12\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-omaha-finding-growth-over-second-half-looking-at-late-push-for-ncaa-tournament-bid\/","url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/12\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-omaha-finding-growth-over-second-half-looking-at-late-push-for-ncaa-tournament-bid\/","name":"This Week in NCHC Hockey: Omaha finding growth over second half, looking at late push for NCAA tournament bid - College Hockey | USCHO.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/12\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-omaha-finding-growth-over-second-half-looking-at-late-push-for-ncaa-tournament-bid\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/12\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-omaha-finding-growth-over-second-half-looking-at-late-push-for-ncaa-tournament-bid\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/latkoczy_omaha.jpg","datePublished":"2025-02-12T20:00:49+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-12T05:24:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/59bfc7fca1ba7bf3b039ebf2724060ae"},"description":"It\u2019s strange to think the hottest home form in the country, at this point in the season, belongs to a team on the outside looking in with regards to a","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/12\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-omaha-finding-growth-over-second-half-looking-at-late-push-for-ncaa-tournament-bid\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/12\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-omaha-finding-growth-over-second-half-looking-at-late-push-for-ncaa-tournament-bid\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/12\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-omaha-finding-growth-over-second-half-looking-at-late-push-for-ncaa-tournament-bid\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/latkoczy_omaha.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/latkoczy_omaha.jpg","width":1416,"height":797,"caption":"Simon Latkoczy has been a top goalie in the NCHC this season (photo: Mark Kuhlmann)."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/12\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-omaha-finding-growth-over-second-half-looking-at-late-push-for-ncaa-tournament-bid\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"This Week in NCHC Hockey: Omaha finding growth over second half, looking at late push for NCAA tournament bid"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/","name":"College Hockey | USCHO.com","description":"Men's and Women's D-I and D-III College Hockey News, Features, Scores, Statistics, Fan Forum, Blogs","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/59bfc7fca1ba7bf3b039ebf2724060ae","name":"Matthew Semisch","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/800654cc217d997dd53c63231da54899","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1cf69ccdebc1e5f39c969dbc92873bc6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1cf69ccdebc1e5f39c969dbc92873bc6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Matthew Semisch"},"description":"NCHC Columnist Matthew Semisch joined USCHO in 2007 as a arena reporter covering Omaha. He later became a WCHA columnist for USCHO before taking a similar role covering the NCHC. He currently works as the sports editor at the Bottineau Courant in Bottineau, N.D.","url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/author\/msemisch\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151253,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151252\/revisions\/151253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151252"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=151252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}