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It's big game week at UNO. Minnesota week. And Goldy Gopher coach Don Lucia unintentionally threw out the first puck last Sunday.

In a radio interview in Minneapolis, Lucia endorsed the possibility of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln adding hockey, calling it "a natural." The Big Ten is forming a hockey conference. It's no secret some coaches would like to add fresh meat, er, new members.

The word got out and caused a stir among UNO hockey fans. You may or may not have heard about it while you were discussing Creighton's buzzer-beaters.

Well, the head Maverick, an old Goldy Gopher himself, didn't flinch when he heard the talk.

"I would welcome it, for sure," said UNO coach Dean Blais about the idea of NU adding Division I hockey. "There's plenty of hockey players to go around. There's a lot of hockey players around."

What about another D-I school so close to Omaha's market?

"I think we'd be fine," Blais said. "But I wouldn't think Lincoln (NU) basketball or football would want hockey interfering."

There are all sorts of reasons why this idea would be ill-timed and ill-fated in Lincoln, not the least of which being that making men's basketball relevant is a much higher priority now than adding hockey. Why cut into basketball's donors, ticket base, preferred dates in the same arena?

Whatever happens, I agree with the coach. UNO hockey is in a very good place. Sturdy. Built to last. Built to grow.

But how much? And to where? There's a lot going on with Mav pucks these days. It feels like a program in transition. It looks like a kid having growth spurts and wondering when — or if — the next one will come.

There's the venue issue. Build an 8,000-seat arena on campus (Chili Greens)? Or stay in the CenturyLink Center, with room to grow the ticket base over 10,000? Can you reach that with hockey? Would the ticket demand in a smaller arena be better for local buzz? Blais would prefer a new arena. Stay tuned. Speculation is hot around town that this drama will reach a conclusion within months.

There's the new conference. In two years, UNO will be playing in its third league in four years, for those keeping score at home.

Then there's the ice. UNO has had an up-and-down season. The Mavs are young, full of peach fuzz. And talent. Blais thinks this is a group that will contend for an NCAA title very soon.

The Mavs are tied for fourth place in the WCHA and have it all set up: Minnesota and Denver come to town on consecutive weekends. That could set up home ice in the league tourney and a possible run to a second straight NCAA tourney appearance.

And then there's the buzz, of lack thereof. Where's the buzz? Dressed in blue. Creighton's two thrillers, one against Evansville, are the talk of the town. Unless it's Doc Sadler's future. Nebraska football Junior Day gets more love than Blais' boys. Surely Bo Pelini went for a jog this week.

If this were Grand Forks or Minneapolis, the buzz might be draped in ice. But Blais lives in Big Red City and McDermottville.

Blais gets that. I like this perspective. While playing at Minnesota and coaching at North Dakota, he was part of a Nebraska football environment. He knows UNO's place.

And yet he has a big vision for hockey, one that includes a national championship and hockey as an official maker of buzz. That outdoor game at TD Ameritrade next year? Blais is already predicting a crowd of 25,000.

"It won't be very long before we're getting an average of 10,000 fans," Blais said. "Basketball and football are America's sports. Hockey is right behind it. We know that. We're not going to run Creighton basketball out of town.

"But we get some crossover there, because when I walk around the Creighton basketball games, every third or fourth person stops me and wants to talk hockey. So there's a lot of crossover. There's a lot of Creighton fans who watch hockey and also a lot of hockey fans who go to watch Creighton basketball. They're wearing their Creighton stuff one night and their Maverick stuff the next night."

Right now, though, UNO hockey belongs to hockey fans. This is a good hockey town. The hockey base is good and loyal. It's been that way with the Knights and the Lancers and now UNO. The Mavs average 7,468. That ranks fifth nationally, behind Wisconsin (11,773), North Dakota (11,111), Minnesota (9,514) and Boston College (8,493).

But what's Blais gotta do to get his team in the mainstream spotlight?

"We have to win," Blais said.

He thinks that his current edition, with 20 freshmen and sophomores, is close. They've had their struggles, their growing pains. They lost a senior captain, a 30-point man, when Alex Hudson was dismissed. They've all had to step up. Freshmen like Ryan Massa, Jaycob Megna, Brian O'Rourke and Josh Archibald have done just that.

The Mavs are coming off a 5-3 win at Colorado College, which came the night after they dropped a 4-3 game with a controversial disallowed goal. Blais saw them grow a bunch. Are the kids ready to arrive ahead of schedule?

"I was proud of them," Blais said. "On Saturday, we would have beat anyone in the country."

As he talks, Blais sits in the lobby of the Motto McLean Ice Arena at 45th and Q Streets, which UNO uses for a practice facility. He's changing his skates in an old-school Omaha hockey setting. It's a cool moment.

Soon, if the coach has his way, he'll be lacing them up in his own state-of-the-art hockey complex. One day UNO will leave Motto Arena and the old-time hockey days behind. Times change. Kids grow up. So do hockey programs. Meanwhile, we wait for this teenager's next growth spurt.

Contact the writer:

402-444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com

twitter.com/tomshatelOWH

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