Two seasons and five games into his third campaign with Omaha, junior defenseman Victor Mancini was well aware that he had still yet to score his first collegiate goal.
He finally ticked that box Saturday in the Mavericks’ 3-2 overtime win at home to Western Michigan and did so with a move that looked as though he’d wasn’t trying it for the first time.
Blueliners aren’t exactly known for crashing the net, but with less than a minute to go in the extra session, Mancini pulled off quite a trick. Racing in low at the left faceoff circle, the New York Rangers draft pick saw that Western Michigan goaltender Cameron Rowe had already dropped down and left the top stick-side corner of the net open for Mancini to roof a forehanded shot into from two feet.
“It’s just years of playing hockey and practice and trying to develop your game in all different ways and being able to have different things in your toolbox so that, when you get the chance to use them, you have that ability,” Mancini said. “It’s awareness of having your head up and seeing what opportunities are given to you, so that you can take advantage of them.
“I work in practice on plays like that a little bit, and it’s obviously not the biggest skill for a defenseman, being that close to the net, but it’s something I can look for coming down and driving to the net like that, but it’s a lot about reading and reacting.”
Saturday’s game-winner was Mancini’s first goal and 16th point in 76 appearances with the Mavericks. On Wednesday, he credited his father Bob, an assistant executive director of development with USA Hockey, in part for not letting his lack of scoring production get him down.
“With my dad and his knowledge of the game, I’ve talked with him and my mom about things, but I don’t think my confidence or my state of mind ever wavered,” Mancini said. “Knowing I hadn’t scored, I was pretty content with how well I was playing, and it was going to come eventually.
“I would be lying if I said it wasn’t eating at me, but it wasn’t eating at me a lot. It wasn’t a big deal in my mind. I was confident that it was going to come eventually, because I felt like I was doing all the right things, and at the end of the day, with the style I play, the most important thing is knowing I’m a part of something bigger than myself. It’s about the team, and if I score goals or not, the way I play the game is going to help the team win.”
And now Mancini has the game puck from Saturday’s winner standing on the desk in his bedroom. UNO equipment manager Jason Smits had made a point of grabbing the puck and writing pertinent game information on it.
“It was incredible,” Mancini said of the immediate postgame atmosphere at Baxter Arena. “It meant more to me than scoring my first goal, just the reactions of the players on the ice and in the locker room.
“That means the world to me, and they’re the reason I come to the rink every day and go to battle every weekend.”
The Mavericks are 3-2-1 through six games and are fresh off four in a row against ranked opponents in Ohio State and Western Michigan. Mancini’s goal gave the Mavericks their only win from those four games, ahead of two more this week against Long Island to end an early eight-game homestand.
“We’re trending in the right direction. Getting the sweep against Niagara to start was big for us, especially considering what happened last year,” Mancini said, referencing UNO’s two losses last year, also at home, to the Purple Eagles out of Atlantic Hockey.
“We’ve been playing some really good teams in Ohio State and Western, and I really like that, at the beginning of our NCHC schedule, we were able to get some points. Those are going to add up, and we’re learning a lot of things early, which is good for us.
“We’ll take what we learn and keep applying it every weekend, and I think the sky’s the limit for us,” Mancini continued. “We’re kind of not on people’s radar, but I think that’s a good thing, and this team is really motivated.”
