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OMAHA, Neb. — Omaha’s Jake Guentzel thought he had the go-ahead goal before it was waved off in the second period after an official review, but later in the third period, he found himself in nearly the same spot, but this time it stood.
After diving for an attempt to connect on a pass from Austin Ortega, Guentzel hung around near the net and hammered home a rebound that was sent in by David Pope. The No. 8 Mavericks scored again 42 seconds later, and Guentzel scored another time with an empty net, to ultimately defeat No. 6 Minnesota Duluth, 4-1, for the series sweep.
Freshman Evan Weninger got the start again for UNO, the first time one Mavericks goaltender has played back-to-back games this season. He tallied 35 saves and 80 saves total for the weekend.
Omaha coach Dean Blais had praise for both his captain and Weninger, who allowed the second goal with just 17 seconds remaining.
“Evan played solid tonight,” Blais said. “He apologized to me for letting in that second goal, that’s what a good kid he is. But Jake Guentzel was the best player on the ice by far.”
Like Friday, UMD had plenty of chances, outshooting UNO in every period and drawing six power plays, but Omaha did its best job to help out Weninger, combining for 28 blocks and killing every penalty.
“For most of both those games we certainly controlled a lot of the play; we made some mistakes that ended up in the back of their net,” Bulldogs coach Scott Sandelin said. “Five-on-five we scored one goal all weekend. We had probably better chances last night. I thought they did a great job of blocking shots. They really sacrificed.”
UNO scored the first goal short-handed when Guentzel found Justin Parizek, who broke free and backhanded the puck past Kasimir Kaskisuo for his third goal of the year.
Guentzel had a hand in at least three of the four Mavericks goals. He was happy with the way the team responded this weekend following last week’s disappointing series at Western Michigan.
“I think the team responded excellent; we kind of challenged ourselves,” Guentzel said. “They have a great team, obviously, one of the better teams in our league. Those are huge wins for us down the road. I think it’s going to help us in the long run.”
UMD got even with the Mavericks in the second period when Dominic Toninato scored from just past the blue line on the left wing on a slow-rolling knuckle-puck that got past a screened Weninger, who didn’t see it until it was too late. The goal came at 13:52 in the second period.
Guentzel then had his first look at the go-ahead goal toward the end of the period, but it wasn’t until the third at 17:47 that he put the Mavericks up again. Less than a minute later, Fredrik Olofsson was credited with a goal that popped up and over Kaskisuo’s head and in to make it 3-1, and with an empty net, Guentzel scored the dagger to seal the sweep.
“I think the key was the guys came out and had a good Monday practice, moved the puck the real well,” Blais said. “Our practices have to be good during the week for us to have a good weekend. We can’t just go through the motions, we can’t be the No. 1 team in the country and think we’re going to come out and go through the motions and we’re good enough to not perform. That was a little bit what happened to Western.”
The Mavericks will have the week off to prepare for Miami the weekend of Nov. 20 and 21. Minnesota Duluth will head home to face Denver next weekend.
OMAHA, Neb.
