OMAHA, Neb. – The Omaha Mavericks remained red-hot Friday night and extended their win streak to five with a 6-3 victory over No. 17 St. Cloud State.
Although the first-period scoresheet had nothing to show for it, Mike Gabinet’s club put together one of its best starts of the season and later netted four third-period goals, en route to the home win.
Omaha has now won eight of its past nine NCHC contests and sits at 13-10-0, 9-4-0.
“Impressive win,” Gabinet said after the game. “I especially liked our first period and didn’t get rewarded on the scoresheet, but had a really good first period. We knew they’d have a little pushback in the second, but overall just a really solid 52 minutes of the game and nice to see us, especially when you play well, get rewarded with a win.”
Five different Mavericks lit the lamp in the win, including senior forward Zach Urdahl – who scored a pair. The Urdahl (2-0-2), Cam Mitchell (1-1-2) and Sam Stange (0-3-3) line combined for seven points, as Mitchell returned after missing three games with an injury.
Sam Stange had his sixth multi-point game of the season on Friday with three assists. Stange has a team-leading 19 points and 17 since Nov. 15. Photo by Logan Hock.
Urdahl broke the ice 6:50 into the second and the two sides traded goals in the middle frame, ultimately heading to the locker room tied 2-2.
Grant Ahcan gave SCSU its only lead of the night 3:25 into the third, yet Omaha responded with four unanswered goals to clinch the series opener.
Omaha has scored 26 of its 66 goals in the third period this season, including 13 third-period tallies over the past seven games.
“I thought it was a good win,” said fifth-year forward Jimmy Glynn, who scored the eventual game-winner. “Showed a lot of resilience down 3-2 and we just kept going. It comes a lot from the bench energy and after we get down a lot of guys are trying to keep everyone up.”
Although Friday’s contest remained gridlocked after 20 minutes, Omaha’s start helped set the tone for the night.
The Mavs out-shot SCSU 12-7 in the first and were constantly buzzing around the offensive zone, generating traffic in front of SCSU’s Gavin Enright – who made several big saves in the loss – and capitalizing on the transition game. SCSU also struggled to get the puck out of its zone as the Mavs dominated much of the period.
“We stayed to our structure and you could tell we were hemming them down in their zone a lot and just keeping that pressure,” Glynn said. “Even if we don’t score it gets that momentum going and we’ll get in sooner than later.”
“We had some Grade-A looks there and their goalie played well, give him credit, and they’re a good team,” Gabinet added. “You know they’re gonna push back but really liked our start and our first period.”
Omaha rolled that momentum into the second before the Huskies pushed back late. Verner Miettinen tied it with exactly one minute left in the period and Ahcan put SCSU ahead with that above-mentioned third-period tally – briefly zapping some of the life out of Baxter Arena.
However, the Mavs answered with four goals over the final 13 minutes, including two on the power play.
Omaha is 8-2-0 this season when scoring a power-play goal and despite squandering a 1:18-long 5-on-3 in the second, Brady Risk and Tyler Rollwagen cashed in late.
Omaha scored on four of its six third-period shots – Risk (PP) at the 6:28 mark, Glynn at the 9:46 mark, Rollwagen (PP) at the 17:02 mark and Urdahl (empty-netter) with 1:04 left – and Simon Latkoczy made 15 of his 31 saves in the third. Omaha has been out-shot 262-193 in the third this season, yet the Mavs have found a way to put games away.
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Charlie Lurie also had a pair of assists in the frame, including a brilliant play to set up Glynn’s game-winner, and the Mavs locked it down defensively in the waning minutes.
“This team’s been building resilience all season long,” Gabinet said. “To go down 3-2 with an unfortunate bounce off our own player and in, and to respond with a really big power-play goal to tie it and then obviously a great goal by Jimmy to put us ahead. I loved the bench energy, the focus that we had and we’re really figuring out how you have to play to be successful.”
Omaha (13-10-0, 9-4-0) and St. Cloud State (11-12-0, 4-9-0) will finish their season series on Saturday. Game 2 is set for another 7:07 p.m. faceoff at Baxter Arena.
Omaha has won two of the first three matchups and remains third in the NCHC standings with 26 points, and the Mavs are 6-1-0 in January. It’s the first time SCSU has dipped below .500 this season.
Zach Urdahl now has 23 career goals in Friday night games, which ranks third among active NCHC skaters. Urdahl leads the Mavericks with 10 on the season. Photo by Logan Hock.
Final line
Omaha 0-2-4– 6
St. Cloud State 0-2-1 – 3
First Period
No score
Second Period
Zach Urdahl (Sam Stange, Cam Mitchell), 6:50
Austin Burnevik (Barrett Hall, Gavyn Thoreson), 11:55, PP
Cam Mitchell (Sam Stange, Griffin Ludtke), 17:53
Verner Miettinen (Grant Ahcan), 19:00
Third Period
Grant Ahcan (Warren Clark, Karl Falk), 3:25
Brady Risk (Sam Stange, Harrison Israels), 6:28, PP
Jimmy Glynn (Charlie Lurie, Brock Bremer), 9:46
Tyler Rollwagen (Jacob Guevin, Charlie Lurie), 17:02, PP
Zach Urdahl (unassisted), 18:56, ENG
SOG
Omaha 12-14-6 – 32
St. Cloud State 7-11-16 – 34
Power Play
Omaha – 2/4
St. Cloud State – 1/1
Saves
Simon Latkoczy, Omaha: 7-9-15 – 31
Gavin Enright, St. Cloud State 12-12-2 – 26