MavSauce - Omaha Lancers v Lincoln Stars

Lincoln Stars v Omaha Lancers
Sat April 6th 7:05p
Ralston Arena

A programming note that MavSauce will be in the house to watch the last Stars/Lancers matchup this season. I'm hoping to get a post up sometime on Sunday. 

Omaha hockey is winding down folks.... get it in now!!

Grant Besse Suits Up for Omaha Lancers

Minnesota Mr. Hockey Joins Lancers for Stretch Playoff Run

The Omaha Lancers got a relatively large and notable addition for their run into the 2012-13 USHL playoffs by acquiring rights to the current Minnesota Mr. Hockey, Grant Besse. Besse comes fresh off a performance in the Minnesota State AA Finals that you'll probably be hearing about (or more likely already heard) in which he scored all five Benilde-St. Margaret's goals - three of them being shorties. Probably a little difficult to believe that this isn't a video game but a YouTube link is embedded below:


With that introduction aside, Besse has signed an LOI to play for Mike Eaves and the Wisconsin Badgers this upcoming season. With the Lancers recently acquiring Besse's rights in a trade with Muskegon, he looks to at least get acquainted with a bigger, faster game of hockey prior to jumping into Division I in a couple of months. 

I took in a game against Des Moines on Sunday night at the Ralston Arena in which Besse started the game at right wing with UNO Maverick recruit Jake Randolph at left. If you recall, Randolph is a pretty decorated prepster himself and was a finalist for Minnesota Mr. Hockey last year. The pairing on Sunday night made for a clearly talented top line, with both playing on the top special teams lines too. 

For Maverick fans, and this is a Mavericks blog, the pairing of Besse and Randolph appear to be younger incarnations of Dominic Zombo and Josh Archibald. Besse has very soft hands and stickwork that could be successful in the NCAA right now. He showed that he was more quick than fast while being able to post in the crease for rebounds most of the evening. While that sort of ice position probably isn't going to happen in the Big Ten as a freshman, it does give a fairly positive projection assuming added physical size comes along in the future. Besse does pretty good job at avoiding garbage contact while driving to net and was a relatively consistent offensive threat while on the ice. 

Now I'll do a deeper post on Randolph but he appears to be a gem for Dean Blais. The USHL time has done him well as he now has a body type that play in DI today. He is a very aggressive, offensive-minded skater with quick wrists. The comp to Archie is totally there - even down to the temper. He took two bad penalties in a tightly officiated game that got chippy near the end. 

Even with the addition of Besse, the Lancers appear to be on the outside looking in with regard to the USHL playoffs. With his Omaha ice time seemingly drawing to a close, I'd recommend at least checking the kid out if you are interested in seeing the best of what Minnesota has to offer (at least in the opinion of the StarTribune). For fans of college hockey, you will at least get to see a pretty deep team that has a handful of notable prep players (like Jake Bischoff, Tucker Poolman) prior to them heading off to school. 

Biting Off More Than I Can Chew

The Creation of MavSauce 

The blog was begun while asking a simple question to some fellow hockey enthusiasts: Why isn't there a Rivals-like website for college hockey? I saw this exact question posted out on Reddit's college hockey forum and saw a total of comments back in two weeks. In asking a couple of coworkers the same question and all I got were some hearty laughs back...

Ok, so feedback received.

But Omaha geographically is in a unique spot with the sport of hockey. The University of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks are led by a two-time National Championship coach that seems to put an onus on bringing in drafted high-schoolers into build the program. Similarly, the Omaha Lancers always seem to have a group of talented individuals that eventually dot NHL rosters. There also seems to be a vibrant and enthusiastic group of parents and children walking around at Moylan Iceplex on a nightly basis.

Especially in this city the interest and growth within the sport is there. I am positive it is the same way in Minnesota, North Dakota, Michigan, and Massachusetts. But why isn't there one spot that makes visibility into college hockey easily accessible? Why isn't there a site that provides ratings, opinions, and lists that give fans details on who is coming to their school?  Why aren't there kids sitting with three hats in front of them on Signing Day broadcast on ESPN5? Maybe that last one was taking it a bit too far but you get it. 

Ideally you can take this website a handful of ways:

1.) I want to provide insight into Omaha Maverick recruiting and highlight those individuals who are (or even might be) putting on the jersey in the coming years

2.) I want to take advantage of the proximity to a premier USHL program and profile those players looking to eventually make names for themselves in the NCAA and beyond

3.) Finally I provide some color to national college hockey where applicable. (Please note: this part is overly ambitious especially for one man and a Blogger site with no HTML/CSS background)

Anytime we are talking recruiting and associated insight, it is entirely subjective. When you're talking college hockey that has no go-to infrastructure for recruiting that makes this endeavor all the more difficult. With that said, I want to make this the site for hockey recruiting conversation taking place within this city.