Nebraska-Omaha Hockey: Hodge, White dismissed from UNO hockey team

Yikes, the Wheels of Justice do not grind slowly in Omaha. Nebraska-Omaha has dismissed one of their top players after an ugly incident earlier in the month at a downtown bar in Omaha, Nebraska. The school has also dismissed an incoming freshman defenseman and suspended former Red River and Central hockey player Alex Simonson

Daniel James Murphy, World-Herald --- The latest fallout from an alleged fight involving members of the University of Nebraska at Omaha hockey team leaves two players dismissed from the team and one player under suspension.

Matt White, 25, Alex Simonson, 23, and Preston Hodge, 21, were each ticketed Aug. 3 on suspicion of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.

On Friday, Athletic Director Trev Alberts announced in a press release that Hodge, a 5-foot-11, 200-pound freshman defenseman, and White, a 5-foot-10, 187-pound senior and Mav co-captain, had been dismissed from the team.

Alberts said Simonson, who played in 18 of UNO's 39 games last season, is under investigation by the university.

This is a huge loss for the Mavericks, White scored (47g-52a—99pts) was in the top ten for scoring in the WCHA last season.

Hodge, White dismissed from UNO hockey team http://t.co/MERYYB9IRu
— World-Herald Mavs (@OWHmavs) August 16, 2013

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Jutting to the UNO Mavericks?

Lets Go Mav's favorite ex-head coach is the topic of rumors on the internet tonight - it's rumored that former Minnesota State University Mankato Mavericks head coach Troy Jutting might be headed to Nebraska Omaha to be an assistant coach with the UNO Mavericks under former Fighting Sioux head coach Dean Blais.  Apparently, this rumor isn't popular with the UNO Mavericks fans.

Megna leaves UNO after one season

In reading this World Herald article from Rob White this early departures really doesn't make a lot of sense as well - Jayson Megna who tallied (13g-18a-31pts) didn't exactly stand out last season as one of the top players in the WCHA, but I guess he would like to take his chances on developing in the minor leagues.

Rob White, World Herald --- Jayson Megna, the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s second-leading returning scorer, decided to turn pro with one of three NHL organizations and won’t return for his sophomore season.

Megna, who attended a development camp with Pittsburgh earlier this month, said he’d decide among the Penguins, Boston Bruins and Winnipeg Jets this weekend. He said he had six or seven offers in all.

“Obviously it was a tough decision for me to leave school after playing there for a year, playing with my brother (defenseman Jaycob) and my other teammates,” Megna said. “I love the city and the fans. But I made a decision that I think is best for me and my career.”

Megna, who made the WCHA all-freshman team in 2011-12 after recording 13 goals and 18 assists for 31 points, becomes another high-profile offseason departure for a program that slumped at the end of a 14-18-6 season.

Megna will be the 12th player this summer from the WCHA to for e-o their college eligibility and sign a professional contract.  Megna is an older player at 22 so he won't be going to the CHL route. 

It's official - Steve Johnson named assistant coach at UNO

Former SCSU assistant coach and former Fighting Sioux All-American forward Steve Johnson has been named the assistant coach at the University of Omaha Nebraska Mavericks. This great personnel move by the UNO Mavericks because it gives them a great assistant coach and will only make the Mavericks better.

OMAHA, Neb. – University of Nebraska Omaha head hockey coach Dean Blais announced today that Steve Johnson has been named the team's new assistant coach. He replaces Mike Hastings who left UNO following the 2011-12 season to take the head coach position at Minnesota State.

“I'm very pleased to have a coach of Steve's caliber fill the void left by Mike Hastings' departure,” said Blais. “Steve has the ability to be a great recruiter for us, and his on-ice skills as a coach are very strong as shown by his work in both the United States Hockey League and at the college level. His knowledge and experience will make our team stronger. ”

Johnson spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach at WCHA rival school St. Cloud State. Prior to that, he succeeded Blais as the head coach of the Fargo Force of the USHL where he coached for one season, leading the Force to the 2010 Clark Cup Finals.

What's up SCSU?

I have been on vacation this past week and I am catching up on some of my reading when I came across this interesting article in the Saint Cloud Times. I am not sure why St. Cloud State President Earl H. Potter III is continuously making some of these statements, on one hand he said, that SCSU isn't going to accept an invitation to the NCHC, a league that his school was never invited to join, and then he does a one 180 and said he would be willing to listen "if" the NCHC wanted to add SCSU. Now we have this. Now Potter is trying to talk down the NCHC, two years before they play their first game.

Mick Hatten; SCTIMES ---- St. Cloud State President Earl H. Potter III has said that the university has looked at the numbers and win-loss records for teams in the newly formed National Collegiate Hockey Conference and for the Western Collegiate Hockey Association teams.

“The NCHC doesn’t look like such a sweet deal for all of these teams,” Potter said.

Here’s a look at some of the numbers that Potter is talking about.

The past six seasons, St. Cloud State has been coached by Bob Motzko. So we’ll use the records of teams from the past six seasons as the base.

The NCHC will, as it stands, have five teams from the WCHA in its inaugural season of 2013-14: Colorado College, Denver, Minnesota-Duluth, Nebraska-Omaha and North Dakota.

Here are the records and winning percentage of those five teams when they competed against each other last season: Colorado College (5-5-1, .500), Denver (5-7, .417), Minnesota-Duluth (3-5-1, .389), Nebraska-Omaha (5-5, .500) and North Dakota (9-5, .643).

Alaska-Anchorage, Bemidji State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State-Mankato and St. Cloud State will be the five teams left in the WCHA after those five leave for the NCHC.

Here are the records for the future NCHC teams against the teams that plan to remain in the WCHA from last season: Colorado College (9-6-1, .594), Denver (13-2-2, .824), Minnesota-Duluth (10-3-2, .733), Nebraska-Omaha (8-6-2, .563) and North Dakota (15-0-2, .889).

St. Cloud State President Earl H. Potter III is right there are going to be some winners and there are going to be the teams that finish at the bottom at the new NCHC. These 6-8 teams are going to be beating the hell out of each other and depending on who they play in their non-conference schedule they would be on the out side looking in when it comes to the NCAA Tourney. The same thing is going to happen to the B1G teams as well.

On the other side of this argument is that the PWR ranking of the WCHA is going to go down with the exit of Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Denver, Colorado College and University of Nebraska Omaha. With these seven teams leaving the WCHA isn't going to be receiving 4-5 at large NCAA Hockey tourney bids anymore either, it's a mathematical fact. In the past season the WCHA had 10 teams in the top twenty of the PWR ranking, however, the WCHA will not be as strong in the PWR rankings and will have less teams in the NCAA tourney as well.

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