The 2021–22 Omaha Mavericks men's ice hockey season was the 25th season of play for the program. They represented the University of Nebraska Omaha in the 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season and for the 9th season in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC). The Mavericks were coached by Mike Gabinet, in his fifth season, and played their home games at Baxter Arena.
Season Omaha began its season with a tremendous run, winning seven consecutive games during the month of October. The extended winning streak vaulted the Mavericks into a top-10 ranking but it did come with a caveat. All of their early-season matches came against relatively weak non-conference opponents and wouldn't provide much assistance in the team's bid for an NCAA appearance. That didn't seem like much of a problem when Omaha earned a road split with top-ranked St. Cloud State, but the Mavericks didn't help themselves with inconsistent performances against the two worst teams in the NCHC.
After returning from the winter break, Omaha continued their up-and-down play with a split against unranked St. Lawrence that put them in the final potential at-large position. They were forced to postpone their series the following week due to COVID-19 but suffered a greater loss when they were swept by Denver afterwards.
Omaha was unable to arrest its downward slide for a while, splitting three consecutive weekends and then bottoming out with a sweep at the hands of Miami in mid-February. The losses to the RedHawks knocked Omaha out of the polls entirely and made it all but impossible for the team to make the NCAA tournament without a conference championship. While the team finished strong in the final three weeks, Omaha sat mired in 6th place with a losing conference record.
Isaiah Saville remained in goal for the Mavericks as they began postseason play. Omaha managed to gain a lead in the first game and were ahead at the start of the third, however, they were facing one of the top offenses in the country in Western Michigan and the Broncos stormed back with a 3-goal third period to take the match. The second game had a similar pattern with Omaha gaining a 3–1 lead mid-way through the contest, only to see their advantage erased with WMU netted three goals in less than 5 minutes. The Mavs were able to tie the game in the third period but could not get the game-winner and ultimately fell in overtime.
Departures Josh Boyer Forward Transferred to St. Lawrence Ryan Brushett Forward Transferred to Massachusetts–Lowell Jordan Klehr Defenseman Graduation (retired) Travis Kothenbeutel Forward Left program (retired) Alexandre Roy Defenseman Transferred to Niagara John Schuldt Defenseman Transferred to St. Thomas
Recruiting Cameron Berg Forward 19 West Fargo, ND; selected 125th overall in 2021 Victor Mancini Defenseman 19 Saginaw, MI Brannon McManus Forward 22 Newport Beach, CA; graduate transfer from Minnesota Ty Mueller Forward 18 Cochrane, AB Davis Pennington Defenseman 20 Saline, MI
Roster As of September 9, 2021.
Standings
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular season
!colspan=12 style=";" |
|- align="center" bgcolor="#e0e0e0" |colspan=12|Omaha Lost Series 0–2
Scoring statistics F 38 19 20 39 39 C/LW 36 8 25 33 20 C/RW 34 9 23 32 4 D 38 6 25 31 31 LW/RW 30 9 14 23 18 C 37 8 15 23 14 F 37 10 11 21 77 LW 38 9 11 20 26 RW 30 10 3 13 14 F 24 8 5 13 2 D 37 5 7 12 20 F 33 5 6 11 29 LW 35 4 6 10 18 D 38 1 9 10 14 D 24 2 6 8 19 D 30 2 5 7 20 D 30 1 5 6 8 LW 32 2 3 5 54 D 38 0 5 5 26 F 37 3 1 4 34 D 7 1 1 2 0 RW 9 1 1 2 2 D 8 0 1 1 4 C 19 0 1 1 6 G 30 0 1 1 0 G 10 0 0 0 0 Total 123 209 332 499
Goaltending statistics 30 1760 16 14 0 74 725 4 .907 2.52 10 522 5 3 0 22 246 0 .918 2.53 Empty Net - 13 - - - 6 - - - - Total 38 2296 21 17 0 102 971 4 .905 2.66
Rankings
PollWeekPre12345678910111213141516171819202122232425 (Final) USCHO.com171713111091199101414151516161818NRNR2019NRNR-NR USA TodayNR151411971110910141515NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 24.
Players drafted into the NHL 2022 NHL entry draft 5 159 Victor Mancini New York Rangers † incoming freshman
References