Men's hockey falls to University of Nebraska Omaha

Augustana men’s hockey faced the University of Nebraska Omaha on Nov. 24-25 and fell in both games, with scores of 2-1 and 5-2. The Vikings overall record now moves to 4-7-1. 

With the first matchup in Omaha, Nebraska, the first quarter opened up with Omaha scoring two minutes into the game. The Vikings made six attempts on the goal, but none of the pucks found their way into the net. The second quarter was a battle, both teams making attempts to score but neither finding results. 

“[The players] are disappointed right now. They are a team that wanted to win and expected to win,” head coach Garrett Raboin said. “They are not just here to help us get our start and have a great time. They are here because they care and they have expectations of themselves.” 

In the final quarter, Omaha advanced its lead with another goal, raising the score to 2-0. With only five minutes remaining in the game, fifth-year forward Chase Brand made a goal with assists from fellow fifth-year Ryan Naumovski and junior Uula Ruikka, ending the game at 2-1.

“On Friday, [Omaha] were super aggressive. They were on their toes and had us on our heels,” Brand said. “I think in the third period on Friday, we started to take it to them a little bit. On Saturday, we did a better job defending quickly and not letting them get set up in our defensive zone so we had more offensive zone time. The score did not indicate it, but we played a lot better on Saturday than Friday.” 

The Vikings returned to play Omaha at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center on Nov. 25. 

“Omaha has always been a fast and strong team,” junior defenseman Brady Ziemer said. “We knew that going in, and Friday we just came out a little too slow. We have skill and speed. We have what it takes to win. We just need to go back to that and focus on ourselves and play the way we can.” 

Omaha earned two goals in the first quarter with 8 shots blocked by senior goaltender Zack Rose. The Vikings shot eight attempts on goal for the quarter. 

Junior forward Luke Mobley answered quickly in the second period with a goal set up by junior defenseman Evan McIntyre and junior forward Jack Jensen. 

“I think the team understands that it’s a process that we’re going through to get better, and sometimes losses are a part of that,” Mobley said. “We’re trending in the right direction, and as a team we’re continuing to get better, and I think that’s the main point.” 

Omaha completed two more goals in the second quarter, putting the score at 4-1.

In the final quarter, Omaha put in one last goal, but Augustana responded with one more too, by Ziemer, ending the game with a score of 5-2. 

“I like how the [players] show up everyday and go to work,” Raboin said. “Sure, wins and losses are what we’re doing here, but as I’ve said from day one, we have to try and grow and get better every single day. I thought that we were a little better [Nov. 25] than [Nov. 24]  in some areas.” 

The Vikings finished the weekend with a combination of 46 attempts on goal and 46 saves by Rose. 

“It’s bound to happen. There’s nights where you don’t let any in, and there’s nights unfortunately you let four, five or six in or even more,” Rose said. “You don’t really think of it that way. You just have to have a next-shot mentality and have a short term memory. The numbers make it seem like I did more than what I did, but in reality, my team played really well in front of me.” 

Although Omaha was a hard loss for the team, Mobley said the Vikings are still determined to improve their skills and continue playing as well as they can. 

“I don’t think we know how good we are or how good we can be yet,” Mobley said. “That’s plenty of reason to be optimistic, just to see how two months ago we kind of just threw everything together and how we’ve been building these past few months, and I’m so excited to see where we can go.”

The Vikings return to the ice against Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan on Dec. 1-2. 

“I know Michigan probably plays a hard game,” McIntrye said. “We gotta focus on our D-zones this weekend because that really lacked last weekend, so I think if we can focus on our defense, it can give us more opportunities to play offense and score more goals.”