by Brandon Vogel

In a process that l'll never completely understand the UNO hockey team made the NCAA Tournament due to some combination of the Tolkien-sounding PairWise Rankings, the first “supermoon” in 18 years, and the fact that Michigan beat Notre Dame and a bunch of other games fell into place. Or something like that. If you want the dirty details MavMania.com can probably help you out. The site's Twitter feed (@unomavmania) was a lifeline for those of us clumsily trying to make sense of college hockey’s tournament selection process. The important thing is that the Mavs season continues just down the road a piece in St. Louis on Friday. UNO received the third-seed in the West Regional and will face its old CCHA rival Michigan at 4:30 p.m. at the Scottrade Center on Mar. 25. The Mavs have won three of the past four games against Michigan, splitting two games in Ann Arbor in October and sweeping the Wolverines in Omaha last season. Beat Michigan and UNO will face either Colorado College or defending national champions Boston College on Saturday. Win there and it’s on to the Frozen Four in St. Paul on April 7. Who’s up for a road trip? The Mavs entire tournament run — and the school could use one after the athletic upheaval on campus last week — will play out within reasonable driving distance of Omaha. Tickets for the UNO-Michigan game are $39 and are available at ticketmaster.com. If that doesn’t work for you all of the NCAA Hockey Tournament games will be broadcast online at ESPN3.com. * Here’s another bit of good news courtesy of the UNO hockey program: WCHA Coach of the Year Dean Blais was named head coach of the U.S. National Junior Team for the 2012 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship. This is the third time Blais has helmed the national junior team. In 2010 he led the squad to an overtime victory over Canada earning only the second gold medal in team history. * New coach Elmar Bolowich and the Creighton men's soccer team make their 2011 debut on Saturday with a pair of spring games against Bellevue University and Denver University. Game times are scheduled for 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. at Morrison Stadium. Bellevue has also announced a spring match-up with NAIA defending national champions Hastings College on April 16 at 1 p.m. at the Bellevue Soccer Club, 3614 Twin Creek Dr.

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