OMAHA, Neb. — Last year in just two games played, Nebraska-Omaha and St. Cloud State scored a combined 22 goals.
Friday night, the Huskies came with a similar amount of offensive fire, but it was the Mavericks, with 26 less shots, who came out with the win.
Despite being outshot 47-20, No. 12 Omaha held off a late third period Husky power play to win 3-2.
Nebraska-Omaha’s Austin Ortega scored the game-winner for the Mavs at 6:17 in the third period.
The Mavs were near the end of a five-minute power play when Jake Guentzel smoked a pass to Ortega, who was sitting behind SCSU goaltender Charlie Lingren, and directed the puck up and in. It was his fifth game-winning goal of the season, second in the NCAA.
“Our line’s been playing really well lately and we were lucky to get the game winner tonight,” Ortega said. “But we’re expected to play really well every night, so I think tomorrow we have the same expectation, maybe just have a better start and be more productive.”
The five minute major was called on Jonny Brodzinski for contact to head when he blindsided Dominic Zombo at 1:38 in the third period.
“It was the right the call – you watch it and it was a five-minute major,” Omaha coach Dean Blais said. “The referees have been told you call hits to the head and blindside hits and hits like that. It was the right call.”
Despite the advantage early in the power play for the Mavs, Ian Brady was called for interference at 2:20 in the game making for 4-on-4 hockey. Nonetheless, UNO went on to score when at full strength and the Huskies were without one of their top players the rest of the way.
“Everybody here knows it was a terrible call,” SCSU coach Bob Motzko said. “One ref told me that he looked up on the replay and saw that it was hit to the head, and if it’s the same replay that everybody saw and everybody at the game saw, I mean that’s pretty scary. We’d like to wonder what he was watching because we’re all watching the same replay.”
Similar to what Omaha had done against Miami last Saturday when it scored on the first shot of the game, the Mavericks struck first on just their second shot on goal, despite already weathering a huge rush early on.
While on the power play, Guentzel flew behind the net and whipped a pass to Brady, who shot a sliding puck past Lingren for the early Mavericks goal at 8:49.
Omaha’s early lead wouldn’t last long.
On the subsequent possession at 9:09, Blake Winiecki flicked a wrister high and in to tie it.
Then after David Pope was called for tripping at 9:42, SCSU worked the puck around perfectly on the power play when it ultimately found Brodzinski, who beat Ryan Massa glove high.
Poor starts is something the Mavs have recognized and look to fix.
“We tend to not start well and that’s when they really jump on us, get the shots up,” Ortega said.
The Mavs allowed 21 shots on goal in the opening the period – the most they have all season.
“Obviously, we couldn’t get out any worse when the shots were something like 15-3,” Blais said. “I was hoping we would catch up and even out, but we never did.”
But UNO kept grinding.
In the second period, Brady dragged the SCSU defense with him near the right circle and then dumped the puck to Justin Parizek, who sniped the water bottle from way outside for the game-tying goal.
From then on, like it’s been several times before, it was the story of Massa.
After making 19 saves, but letting in two goals in the first period, Massa blanked the Huskies, who put up 14 shots in both the third and fourth period.
Massa’s 47-save performance ranked third in UNO history.
“They should call this game goalie, not hockey,” Blais said. “He loves it.”
After the five-minute major and Ortega goal, both sides battled evenly until 17:43 in the third period.
Ortega was whistled for tripping, and the Mavs were on the penalty kill for nearly the rest of the game.
The Huskies threw everything at the Mavericks’ defense, including pulling Lingren and playing with a 6-on-4 advantage for 1:46, but UNO sealed the win.
“We had so many golden chances to take the lead, but we didn’t do it,” Motzoko said. “At goal, he [Massa] was awfully strong tonight and sometimes in hockey, the guy between the pipes can be the difference and it appears from our seats, until you break it down, that he was awful strong tonight because we had plenty of chances.”
Massa continues to make his mark as one of the best goaltenders, and players, to play as an Omaha Maverick.
“UNO is a special place,” Massa said. “The fact that I’ve been able to be a consistent contributor to the lineup since being a freshman, it’s something that’s been really special here. Really thankful for the opportunity here.”
Massa wasn’t the only one to hit a milestone in the victory as it was also the 100th win at Omaha for Blais.
