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Greed was good.
The No. 19 UNO hockey team finally put together a six-point weekend, wrapping up its first CCHA sweep of the season Saturday night with a 4-2 win against Western Michigan.
The University of Nebraska at Omaha snapped its three-game losing streak with Friday's 4-3 victory against the Broncos. But just as important, the Mavericks didn't let off the gas during the series finale with the conference's last-place team in their own arena.
Not since the season-opening Mutual of Omaha Icebreaker, when the Mavs notched home wins against Army and third-ranked UMass Lowell, had UNO recorded back-to-back victories on the same weekend under new coach Dean Blais.
“You can't let home opportunities slip away,” Blais said. “Guys played hard this weekend, and everyone chipped in and did what they had to do.”
Eddie Del Grosso scored twice, and Eric Olimb also had a goal and an assist for UNO. Matt Ambroz netted the Mavs' first goal of the game, and Ryan Kretzer finished with a pair of assists.
These two wins alone helped the Mavs, who entered the weekend tied for ninth, move up to sixth in the CCHA standings — pending a late outcome in Alaska between the Nanooks and Northern Michigan.
“A split this weekend wouldn't have worked,” said Del Grosso, voted the game's No. 1 star. “We really needed to get both wins, especially to jump up in the standings.”
Ambroz's power-play goal 7:15 into the game was the only score of the first period. Del Grosso would make it 2-1 Mavs late in the second with a fantastic individual effort. On the play, Del Grosso raced through the neutral zone and passed the puck at the blueline to Terry Broadhurst.
Broadhurst fed the puck right back to Del Grosso, and the standout defenseman directed the puck past goalie Jerry Kuhn while racing to the net.
The first two times UNO took one-goal leads, however, Western responded to knot the score. Cam Watson answered Ambroz's goal in the second period and Ian Slater scored 13 seconds into the third to make it 2-all.
The Mavs' stifling defense limited the Broncos to just 10 shots — yes, 10 shots — in the game. Unfortunately, two of them slipped past UNO goalie John Faulkner.
In another sign that Blais is not thrilled about the recent play of his goalies, the coach didn't dress senior Jeremie Dupont. Faulkner and true freshman Fredrik Bergman — who hasn't played this season — were the only goalies in uniform Saturday. The healthy scratch is believed to be a first for Dupont during his four years at UNO.
Blais said Faulkner performed OK, considering that he wasn't tested often.
“It's hard when you don't see that many shots,” Blais said. “It's hard mentally keeping in the game. I don't think he had to make any great saves, because we played good team defense. We won the game, and he only gave up the two goals. You'd like to see less, but (Western) has guys that want to win, too.”
Olimb's second goal of the season, on a scramble in front of Western's net, came just three minutes after Slater scored. Then during a UNO power play, Del Grosso beat Kuhn with a hard wrister through traffic to close the scoring at 13:35 of the third.
UNO plays its next four games on the road, starting with a series next weekend at Ferris State.
“It was a great weekend for us,” Olimb said. “We just showed resilience and never quit. Hopefully we can build off this now.”
Western Michigan (5-7-2, 1-7-2-1).............0 1 1—2
At UNO (7-4-3, 4-4-2-1)...............1 1 2—4
First period: 1, UNO, Ambroz 3 (Olimb, Kretzer), 12:45 (pp).
Second period: 2, WMU, C. Watson 2 (Clackson, Slater), 7:23. 3, UNO, Del Grosso 3 (Broadhurst, Kretzer), 18:58.
Third period: 4, WMU, Slater 3 (C. Watson), 0:13. 5, UNO, Olimb 2 (Swanson, Hudson), 3:12. 6, UNO, Del Grosso 4 (Agosta, Kemp), 13:35.
Shots on goal:
WMU..............1 6 3—10
At UNO.............7 5 17—29
Power plays: WMU 0 for 3; UNO 2 for 4.
Penalties-minutes: WMU 4-8; UNO 3-6.
Goalies: WMU, Kuhn (29 shots, 25 saves, 59:13). UNO, Faulkner (10 shots, 8 saves, 60:00).
Three stars: 1, Del Grosso. 2, Olimb. 3, C. Watson.
Attendance: 6,136.
Contact the writer:
444-1207, chad.purcell@owh.com
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