Omaha will be joined by a player from Alaska.The Mavs finished fourth in NCAA attendance.

Omaha Hockey has added two players from Alaska through the transfer portal. They are two-time team captain Harrison Israels and leading scorer Brady Riske.

The Israeli led the Nanoks with 20 points last season and was tied for second on the team in scoring with 27 points. The 6-foot-1 junior forward had career totals of 33 points and 20 assists in 96 games.

Risk, a 5-9 junior forward, had 13 goals and 20 assists for a team-high 33 points in 32 games. His alternate captain had a career total of 36 goals and 44 assists in 97 games.

The two combined for 13 goals on the power play, with Israel also scoring three goals shorthanded.

Independent Alaska finished last season with a record of 17 wins, 14 losses, and 3 draws. That included an early-season win over NCHC member St. Cloud State.

UNO added a trio of Big Ten players through the transfer portal: Wisconsin's Sam Stange, Penn State's Dylan Gratton and Minnesota's Garrett Pinoniemi.

Stange is a senior forward from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, who played in 106 games for the Badgers. He scored 29 points with 13 goals and 16 assists.

A fourth-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings, he previously played in the USHL with Sioux City and Sioux Falls.

Gratton is a 6-foot sophomore defenseman who previously played for three USHL teams. He played in all 36 games, had three goals and 10 assists, and led the Nittany Lions in blocked shots with 63.

He played in 33 games as a freshman and led all Penn State freshman players with 11 points.

Pinoniemi played in 64 games for the Gophers and helped lead Minnesota to the 2023 national title game. The sophomore previously played three seasons with Sioux Falls of the USHL.

UNO finished the season in 12th place in the final USCHO national ratings, their best finish since the 2015 Frozen 4 team finished the season in 4th place.

The Mavs dropped one spot from their previous ranking of 11th place.

National champion Denver received all 50 first-place votes and came out on top in the final voting. The Pioneers and Mavs were two of six NCHC schools in the final top 20.

The others were the University of North Dakota in 8th place, Western Michigan University in 14th place, the University of Colorado in 15th place, and St. Cloud in 18th place.

Arizona State, which will join the league before the start of the 2024-25 season, finished with 20 points but was the first team to fall outside the league.

After playing in a tournament in Arizona last January, UNO is scheduled to play in a tournament in California next January.

The Mavs will compete in the inaugural Coachella Valley Cactus Cup in Palm Springs. The four-team event will be held on January 3rd and 4th.

The tournament also includes Lowell College, Michigan Technological University and College of the Holy Cross.

Tickets went on sale Friday at Ticketmaster.com.

The tournament will be held at Acrisure Arena, home of the AHL's Coachella Valley Firebirds. This team is affiliated with the NHL's Seattle Kraken.

The first round games will be Holy Cross vs. UNO and Lowell vs. Michigan Tech. The losers play the next day, followed by a championship match.

“We're very excited to be playing in Palm Springs,” Mavs coach Mike Gabinet said. “We look forward to sharing this experience with our athletes and fans.”

Senior forwards Brock Bremer and Jimmy Glynn and senior defenseman Nolan Klenzen announced plans to return to the Mavs for another season.

Bremer had eight goals and 12 assists in 40 games. Glynn played in 39 games and had nine goals and six assists.

The Mavs saw a huge improvement in scoring from both players in the second half of the season. Bremer has scored in three of the last four games and Glynn has scored in three of the last five games.

Krentzen had two goals and 10 assists last season, both career bests. He played in all 40 games and was second on the team in blocked shots with 33.

UNO averaged 7,043 fans at Baxter Arena this season, which was fourth in the NCAA.

Seven games were sold out, an arena record. That included five consecutive sold-out games to end the regular season.

The Mavs finished behind North Dakota (11,612 average), Wisconsin (10,059) and Minnesota (9,225). Rounding out the top five was Boston University (6,895).

Graduate students Kirby Proctor and Nolan Sullivan finished their UNO careers with a 1-2 record in games played.

Proctor appeared in 172 games, setting a school record. The defenseman scored 17 goals and 34 assists and signed with a professional team in Quebec.

Sullivan was right behind him, playing 171 games. The two-time team captain scored 27 goals and had 34 assists before signing a professional contract with the ECHL's Kansas City Mavericks.