Omaha Hockey has gotten quite familiar with close games this fall.
The Mavericks opened the season with a pair of one-goal losses against Augustana, earned an overtime win at Lindenwood, and went toe-to-toe with No. 3 Denver. Game 1 against St. Cloud State was no different, as the Mavericks ultimately skated to a 2-2 tie on Friday, but earned an extra point via a six-round shootout.
The theme through their first seven games? A lot of positives, but the wins weren’t there to reflect them.
However, the Mavericks started fast, capitalized late, and found themselves on the right side of a close game Saturday night, completing a five-point weekend with a 5-3 win over the Huskies.
“Great start by us. That was a focus for us tonight to come out and play well, and I really liked our start,” said head coach Mike Gabinet, who also earned his 150th career win on Saturday. “Thought we came out and played the right way, had some great (offensive) zone time, and a little bit the story of our season. Tight games, tight games, and nice to see us find a way to get a big goal at the end of the game.”
Omaha struck twice within the opening 2:48 and carried a 3-1 lead into the first intermission, only to see the Huskies eventually tie it 9:08 into the third.
SCSU scored all three of its goals on the power play, and all five SCSU goals came on the man advantage this weekend. Omaha’s penalty kill entered the series 20-for-21.
However, Maxime Pellerin netted a power-play tally of his own with just 3:53 left in regulation, and Sean Tschigerl secured “three big points” with an empty-netter. Tschigerl scored Omaha’s first and final goals of the night and was named the game’s No. 1 star.
“I thought we did a good job coming out to play,” Tschigerl said. “A little slow start yesterday, but I thought the first period was a good indicator for us to get going.”
That start was key for the home side, especially after SCSU scored 1:49 into Friday’s contest. Omaha had previously led at the end of the first period just twice this season, yet the Mavericks came out flying on Saturday.
Tschigerl, Ryan McCleary and Gavin Hodnett scored Omaha’s first-period goals, and all three finished with two goals in the series.
Hodnett was a key part of arguably Omaha’s best line of the weekend, playing alongside Trevor Wong and Logan Wormald. The freshman’s goal came off a loose puck at the top of the SCSU crease, and there was once again plenty of traffic in front of both goaltenders.
Will Lacelle made another 23 saves on Saturday and stopped 65 of the 70 shots he saw in the series, and SCSU’s Yan Shostak turned aside 50 of 56.
Big-time smiles for a big-time win. @omahahky takes down St. Cloud State 5-3 in game two and claims five points in this weekend’s series. pic.twitter.com/fV63PlEUZS
— Hurrdat Sports (@HurrdatSports) November 8, 2026
After dominating much of the first period, the Mavericks weathered the storm at times, too. Especially in the third.
“Just a resilient effort by the group,” Gabinet said. “They’re getting comfortable in these situations, and I think that’s part of it. To be able to now make plays under pressure, make plays in high-risk situations, just to see the growth in the decision making has been great.”
Now the Mavericks will look to build off this weekend as the NCHC slate continues.
Omaha (3-4-1, 1-2-1) travels to Miami (7-3-0, 2-2-0) next weekend and returns home Nov. 20-21 to host fifth-ranked Western Michigan. Miami split its series in Duluth this weekend.
“We’re going into a tough Miami series, and (I want to see us) keep growing,” Gabinet said. “Keep finding ways to improve, keep looking at things we need to get better at, and keep building their confidence up. It’s a young group.
“A lot of these guys don’t have a lot of college experience, so I think it’s good to keep reinforcing the good things they’re doing and obviously keep working on the things we need to improve on.”
Stay tuned to Hurrdat Sports all season as Avarie Howard and Jordan McAlpine provide Omaha hockey coverage.
