Complete weekly release

Primed to put their early season struggles behind them, this week Colorado College's Tigers take on the league-leading University of Nebraska Omaha in a two-game National Collegiate Hockey Conference series at the World Arena.

Faceoff is 7:37 p.m. MT Friday and 7:07 p.m. Saturday as both teams play their final conference games of the 2013 calendar year. A sweep would pull CC to within three points of the 16th-ranked Mavericks.

Colorado College, 1-10-2 overall after falling twice (6-2, 3-0) to the University of New Hampshire at home last weekend, is 1-5-2-1 and tied for fifth place in the NCHC standings. Nebraska Omaha, which was idle last week, is 8-6-0 overall and a glittering 5-1-0-0 in league play after sweeping Miami University (6-3, 3-1) at Omaha's CenturyLInk Center back on Nov. 22 and 23.

Scott Owens, in his 15th season as head coach at CC, knows the tough times are due to end for his Tigers.

"We need to stay together as a team and work our way through it," he said after last Saturday's defeat, "so we can be a better team in the second half."

Owens and Dean Blais, currently in his fifth season behind the UNO bench after an earlier stint at the University of North Dakota, both have coached 582 official games in the NCAA DIvision I ranks.

Friday's series opener marks just the 10th meeting ever between the Tigers and Mavericks, who have split four previous decisions at the World Arena. UNO owns a 5-3-1 overall edge in the rivalry after beating Colorado College twice at the CenturyLink Center (8-4, 3-1) in early January.

Tiger Bytes: The teams skated to a 2-2 tie in the opening round of the Nye Frontier Classic in Anchorage, Alaska, on Oct. 13, 2006, when Nebraska Omaha won a post-overtime shootout to advance to the tournament championship game. ... Five freshmen – defenseman Gustav Olofsson (2) and Jaccob Slavin (1), along with forwards Zach Aman (1), Alex Roos (3) and Sam Rothstein (1) – have accounted for eight of CC's total of 17 goals (47.1 percent) through 13 outings after Rothstein notched the first of his career last Friday. ... Colorado College had clicked for a power-play goal in a season-best three consecutive games before going 0-for-4 with the man advantage against New Hampshire on Saturday. Sophomore Cody Bradley and Roos, who normally fill two of the team's three forward positions on the first-unit power play, both sat out the series finale with injuries, but are hoping to return to the lineup this week.