Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.

UNO's road to home ice for the WCHA playoffs didn't get any easier after the Mavericks managed to earn just one of four points at home last weekend against Bemidji State.

Not that traveling to Houghton, Mich., is ever easy, but the road this weekend is even more difficult because the resurgent Huskies are in the midst of their best season in two decades.

Oh, and it's Winter Carnival week, Michigan Tech's annual celebration that draws thousands of visitors to the city of 8,000 in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

So not only are the Mavericks embarking on a 13-hour bus trip over two days at 5 p.m. Wednesday to get ready for Friday's 6:07 p.m. CST series opener at the MacInnes Ice Arena, their weekend accommodations are about 45 minutes south of Houghton, in Baraga, Mich.

"It's going to be tough," UNO forward Ryan Walters said. "It's one of the biggest weekends of the year with the carnival going on. We don't have a hotel close to the rink . we're going to have to deal with some adversity, but I think we're going to be better for it."

UNO coach Dean Blais isn't a big fan of flying in to Houghton. He still remembers, while coaching at North Dakota, flying in a day early and having the bags of several players not catch up until just a few hours before the series opener.

So, instead of flying from Omaha to Minneapolis, and then flying to Green Bay, Wis., and then busing another four hours to Houghton, the Mavs will spend about 8½ hours on the bus to stay the night in Superior, Wis., then bus another four hours or so to their accommodations Thursday.

At least they'll know where their gear is.

"More team-bonding time," forward Jayson Megna said.

In Houghton, lake-effect snows from Lake Superior typically produce more than 200 inches of snow each winter. Winter Carnival activities include snow sculptures and various outdoor activities, and the hockey series is just part of the celebration.

"It's their biggest time of year up there," Blais said. "We found it was tough to get a hotel room, even four months early. Emotionally for the players, with a full building and the success they've had, the way they've turned it around — they're going to be jacked up for us. There's a lot on the line."

UNO (12-11-5 overall, 9-7-4 WCHA), Michigan Tech (13-13-2, 10-8-2) and North Dakota are in the three-way tie for fifth place in the WCHA with 22 points. St. Cloud State is only one point behind in eighth. There are only six home-ice spots available for the first round of the WCHA playoffs.

And should a team manage to pick up three or four points this weekend, catching third-place Colorado College (25 points) or fourth-place Denver (24) becomes a possibility. That's especially true for UNO, which faces CC and Denver in two of its final three series of the season.

"The players talked about it at practice Monday more than I had to," Blais said. "They know Michigan Tech is right in the hunt. They know the importance of the series.

"With the young team we have, there's pressure on them. So it's a question of how are we handling the pressure? We'll find out. Four at home (series with Minnesota and Denver), four on the road (Michigan Tech and CC). The schedule was to our advantage, but it was tilted by only getting one point from Bemidji."

Michigan Tech, 4-30-4 last season and 15-85-9 the previous three years, has a chance to post its first winning season since 2006-07 and to earn home ice for the playoffs for the first time since 1992-93.

"They have an opportunity now for home ice in the playoffs," Blais said. "And I'm sure they're looking at our schedule — going to Colorado College, then Denver and Minnesota at home — and that's probably the toughest schedule."

Though UNO has been respectable in WCHA road games at 4-4-2, some struggles at home, combined with a couple of lost points on the road, make this series even more important.

"We need to be focused on a full effort this weekend and understand that we're trying to get all four points, not just some of them," UNO defenseman Bryce Aneloski said. "It's a big test on the road. And I think our biggest goal is to put two good games together. We haven't put two good ones together in awhile, and that starts Friday night when the puck drops."

Contact the writer:

402-444-1027, rob.white@owh.com

twitter.com/RWhiteOWH

« Sports - Mavs Today

Share