Friday, November 05, 2010

UNO Blasts Mankato After Sluggish Start

UNO's #8 ranked hockey team met an old North Central Conference rival for their inaugural WCHA home game, defeating Minnesota State-Mankato 5-1 tonight.  It was a sluggish start for the Mavs, but got things going in the second period to take a 3-0 lead into the third period.  The star of the game was freshman Johnnie Searfoss, who scored two power play goals 29 seconds apart in the third period to break the game wide open.  Big day for Searfoss, who was featured in the World-Herald earlier in the day.

Actually it was a big day for all of UNO's youngsters.  Fellow freshman Ryan Walters and newcomer Bryce Aneloski also added goals, with Eric Olimb scoring the lone goal by a player on last year's team.  This isn't the first game the freshmen have dominated this season, which raises the question... just how good can this team be?

A pretty decent sized crowd (7,232) tonight, especially when you consider that the high school football playoffs are still going on.  I'll say it again.  UNO should not announce any building plans in the forseeable future, because UNO nearly would have sold out what the rumor mill suggests is going to be built.  In November, during football season.

Tonight's third period was rather chippy on both sides of the ice. Eric Olimb took a charging penalty seconds after being released from the penalty box; that's not playing smart hockey. Mankato's Tyler Elbrecht drew the ire from fans for repeated chippiness and near goonery away from the puck and on faceoffs. Tomorrow night's game should be rather physical based on how tonight's game ended. Not sure I'll be able to attend with the Husker game in the afternoon, though.

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