Justin Kies; STAFF WRITER
After an impressive showing on the ice Friday night in Oxford, Ohio, the RedHawks managed to split the weekend series, and overall season series, with your Omaha Mavericks.
After a scoreless first period on Friday, UNO was able to capitalize first when Ryan Galt assisted Teemu Pulkkinen during an Omaha power play almost five minutes into the second period. Omaha’s defense was solid and took that 1-0 lead into the third period, but it was senior goalie Evan Weninger who stole the show.
Weninger made an outstanding 38 saves during the contest to earn his eighth career shutout at UNO, making him Omaha’s career shutout leader. He also surpassed 3,000 saves during Friday night’s game and is just a little over 100 saves away from being Omaha’s career leader in that category too.
Galt scored Omaha’s second goal of the night early in the third period, and Mason Morelli scored a late, empty-net goal to lift the Mavericks to a 3-0 victory in game one. Morelli’s late goal was his 18th of the year, good enough to lead the NCHC in goals.
Despite losing their ninth straight game a short 24 hours before, the RedHawks came out Saturday night with a chip on their shoulders. Miami scored first off the stick of Derek Daschke only eight minutes into the first, and Phil Knies quickly made it 2-0 when he capitalized off a rebound just a short three minutes later.
UNO’s fight was no match for the home team on Saturday, MU’s Scott Corbett added to the Redhawks’ lead about halfway through the second period to put them in a comfortable 3-0 spot at home.
Omaha’s Chayse Primeau was able to answer shortly after and Jalen Schulz hit home with a nice slap shot later in the second to keep the Mavs alive only down 3-2. Unfortunately, Miami’s defense was able to curb Omaha for the remainder of the game, and the RedHawks late goal with under four minutes remaining led them to a 4-2 win at home.
Omaha is 2-2 against Miami this year, 9-17-2 overall and 5-12-1 in NCHC play which has the Mavs sitting in seventh place. Coach Gabinet and company will return to action February 22nd and 23rd, on their home ice against the extremely talented and top-ranked St. Cloud State Huskies.
