For the University of North Dakota, the Frozen Four is an expectation each April. That’s not exactly how things work over at Nebraska-Omaha.
The Mavericks’ national semifinal matchup with Providence — set for Thursday at TD Garden — will mark the first-ever Frozen Four appearance for a program that has been in existence for a mere 18 years.
“We’re just pretty excited, obviously, coming off of the regional,” head coach Dean Blais said Tuesday in a conference call with reporters. “We never even thought this was a possibility at the start of the year. We didn’t know what we had. We were a young team. I think that we had pretty good goaltending in Ryan Massa, but he’s taken us to another level.”
Massa, a junior, is UNO’s all-time career leader in both save percentage and goal against average, and he allowed just one total goal as the Mavericks dispatched Harvard and RIT to win the Midwest Regional.
“Obviously, we’re extremely excited as a team to be representing Omaha in the Frozen Four,” senior captain Brian O’Rourke said, “but I think the good thing about this team is that we’ve been able to keep our goals pretty well-known throughout the year. As coach said, we weren’t really sure what to expect, but when the year got started, we kind of realized we have championship potential. Just going to Boston, we’re obviously honored, but at the same time, we still have that same goal in mind: We want to win a championship.”
This national stage might be foreign to the UNO players, but it’s a familiar one for their coach. Before taking over in Omaha, Blais stood behind the bench at North Dakota for 10 seasons, leading the then-Fighting Sioux to national titles in 1997 and 2000.
Blais, however, says he doesn’t talk much about those championship teams to his players. He cites the stark differences between the two programs: North Dakota has been a national power for decades, while Nebraska-Omaha is appearing in just its third NCAA tournament.
Blais views UNO as a program on the rise, though, in terms of both on-ice success and popularity in a city not traditionally known for its hockey. It goes without saying that a national title would do wonders for that growth.
“Certainly (athletic director) Trev Alberts is working on that right now,” Blais said. “He wants hockey to be a big thing in Omaha. We don’t try to outdo the (Nebraska) Cornhuskers or Creighton basketball, but it starts by building a new arena — a 7,500-seat arena just off campus that’ll be ready for next year (UNO averaged 6,241 fans per game this season, good for sixth in the nation, but plays in the 16,680-seat CenturyLink Center). We’re getting more media attention. But it all starts with winning. There is nothing you can do as far as advertising and promotion (better) than winning.
“It’s a huge deal in Omaha what we just accomplished, and if we win it, it’ll just be another feather in the cap of the hockey program.”
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@alongtheboards
