Of course, the weekend I'm out of town, UNO sweeps a series and nearly
doubles its win total for the season (from 3 to 5). Oh well, I'll be able to
catch the Niagara games in a couple weeks.
Without further ado, here are the news and notes from Omaha, with help
(mostly the special team stats) from Eric Olson's article in the Omaha
World-Herald:
-If a 2nd-year team can have anyone's number, UNO has Air Force's. 5 of
UNO's 17 wins over the past two seasons have come against AFA. UNO leads the
series with AFA 5-1-0.
-Despite UNO's slow start, they are on pace with last year. Through 22 games
last season they were 5-17, thru 23 games this year they're 5-18. Of course
last year they went on a hot streak where they were unbeaten in 9 or 10
games or so, and I doubt that'll happen this year, though you never know,
most of UNO's toughest games are out of the way.
-UNO's penalty killing is nearing the top 10 in the country. They were #17
last week, and made Air Force go 0-13 on the PP over the weekend. On the
same lines, in the past 9 games they've scored more goals shorthanded than
they've given up while killing a PP (3 to 2), killing 47-49 over the 9 game
span.
-Also on special teams, UNO's PP is starting to improve. They've broken the
10% mark! (and there was much rejoicing..yea! yea!) UNO has gone 5-22(22.7%)
on the power play following a 1-25 slump before that. They're closing in on
the magic 15-20% number, which is a good sign.
-Attendance for the Air Force games were the highest all year, with the
possible exception of the season opener. Over 7,500 people attended each
night, still meaning about 700-800 no shows for the 8,314 sellout but still
better than the average 2,000-3,000 no shows UNO has been averaging. This
can probably be attributed partly to UNO showing a spark 2 weeks ago in
their previous game against Bowling Green and partly because Frank Serratore
coaches Air Force.
-Serratore and Omaha have a long history. He started the Omaha Lancers on
the way to becoming the premier USHL team. In his one season as coach of the
Lancers, he turned them from worst to first in the USHL. He also claims the
UNO head coaching job was the only time he's ever been turned down from
something he wanted.
-Serratore also made some comments this past week. He called UNO's 6-2
victory on Friday "lucky." Maybe it's me, but a 6-2 win has nothing to do
with luck no matter how you justify it. He then called UNO's play in
Saturday 4-0 victory "moronic." No comment from me on that one, since I
wasn't there and UNO won 4-0.
-Then because they've made 2 trips to Omaha but we've only made 1 trip out
there, we owe them one more trip out there. Serratore,"They either owe us a
check or a trip back. It might be smarter to give us a check so they can
have a home game and make a lot more money than they'd ever have to pay us."
<--some UNO fans' translations (and my gut reaction too), "We're tired of
getting beat by you, send us a check instead of coming out here again."
-UNO heads out to Fairbanks, Alaska this weekend. Not a trip that is being
looked forward to by many people outside of the program. Plus radio coverage
is pretty much because it won't start til 10 PM local time. Meaning it'll
end about 12:30-1 AM, and not too many people will be awake by then.
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Ben Flickinger
-------------------------------
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
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(Stanley Cup Champion) Detroit Red Wings Fan for Life
Proud resident of Bugaha(Omaha)-Home of the 1st Jim Rome World Tour Stop.
U!N!0! U!N!O!
Everyone can have a bad century or two. Cubbies all the way in 1999.
===============================
QOTW: What do you do when you come to a fork in the road?
"Take it." (Yogi Berra)
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