Sunday Night Dessert: Mavs Sweep Minnesota

One of the pleasant surprises of the weekend was listening to UNO sweep Minnesota in hockey up in Minneapolis. Winning two games at Mariucci in a weekend is kind of like winning back-to-back games at Duke and North Carolina in basketball.  Just doesn't happen very often...let alone in your first try. It's early this season, so you can read too much into this.  Minnesota could simply not be what they used to be in hockey. But starting out the season with four points on the road is nothing to sneeze at.  When the college hockey polls come out tomorrow, don't be surprised if UNO is a top ten team.

Next up for the Mavs is a road trip to their old haunt:  the third ranked Michigan Wolverines. Dean Blais wanted to get one trip to Yost, so it's back to the CCHA for a weekend. If UNO can pull off at least a split in Ann Arbor, the Mavs will be positioning themselves very well this season.

It's a fact of college sporting life that this hot start is likely to go relatively unnoticed outside the core hockey fan base. Many of my fellow Maverick fans will disagree with this, but it's still football season, and the average sports fan is still thinking football. I looked around last night, and most of the Minnesota Gopher blogs were talking about the firing of Tim Brewster, not the sweep. It's not an Omaha or Husker thing...it's just the mindset  of the average sports fan.  Once football season is over, fans will start paying more attention to hockey.

If UNO continues to play this hot, Trev Alberts better put his arena plans on hold for a few months. You don't want to announce a new building then find out that you've already outgrown it before construction even begins. Omaha loves a winner, and Dean Blais seems to be making it happen.

Looking back at yesterday's Texas game, I'm not as depressed today as I thought I would be. Truth be told, the more I look at the game, the more I realize that Nebraska beat Nebraska more than Texas did. Sure, Texas squashed the Husker rushing attack, but left the door wide open for Nebraska to score at-will through the air. Except that the Husker receivers couldn't catch a cold yesterday, dropping pass after pass.  Ted Gilmore says that Nebraska dropped five touchdown passes yesterday; you think that would have made a difference in the final outcome?

One thing did bother me is that Bo Pelini used to be able to give us a warning that the Huskers weren't going to play well.  When Nebraska didn't practice well, he'd say it...and then almost always, Nebraska didn't play well in the ensuing game. I didn't hear that warning this week, nor prior to South Dakota State. Maybe Bo was surprised by it..or he's realized there's no point in disclosing how the team practiced.