Alex Hudson can't pinpoint a reason. But in his two seasons skating with the UNO hockey team, Hudson's scoring output most definitely has happened in bunches.
He has netted 14 goals since he joined the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2008-09 — including eight this season. He already has five two-goal games while wearing a Mavericks sweater.
Two of those two-goal efforts have come during UNO's past six games as the former Tri-City Storm standout has started to produce the way coach Dean Blais knows that he can. Hudson has at least one point in five of the Mavs' past six contests, and he's recorded five goals and three assists in that span.
“It's hard playing college hockey, especially in the CCHA, to be honest with you,” said Hudson, a sophomore from Corona, Calif. “Every time I score a goal or get a point, I feel grateful for it — I know that.”
Hudson must just make it look easy. He netted all three of his team's goals three weekends ago as UNO split a series with Alaska. During UNO's dramatic 5-3 win over Northern Michigan on Saturday, Hudson scored twice, added an assist and just missed a hat trick on two occasions.
“I think Alex has kind of figured it out,” Blais said. “It starts in practice, and the hard work he's put in during practice has really carried over into games. His whole game has really turned around on the positive side here in the second half.”
Hudson more or less shrugged off the subject of his recent hot streak. But he lit up when asked about the way he lit up Northern's Mark Olver last weekend.
Olver, one of the most dazzling talents in the CCHA, was on the receiving end of Hudson's perfectly clean, perfectly timed open-ice hit Saturday night. Olver swooped back to the middle of the ice with the puck after entering the Mavs' zone. As soon as Olver changed directions, however, he shifted right into the path of an oncoming Hudson, who was backchecking and had built up a good amount of steam.
The 6-foot, 205-pound Hudson — who played cornerback for his high school football team — put his shoulder into Olver's chest. The hit lifted Olver off his feet and sent him flying backward and onto the ice. Olver skated to Northern's bench and was clearly rattled, but credit Olver for coming back for another shift just a few minutes later.
“Things were kind of heating up in the game,” Hudson said. “I didn't realize he was going to keep coming at me the way he did, so I just thought to myself, ‘I have to make him pay.' It felt like a good, clean hit. It kind of hurt me, too, but it was worth it.”
The thundering check might rank among the biggest collisions in program history. And the Mavs' Matt Ambroz, a junior forward who also is known for his physical play, said everybody on the team appreciated the way Hudson sent a message.
“We all went nuts — the entire bench was really fired up,” said Ambroz, who skated with Hudson at Tri-City. “You could just hear how hard that hit was. It was awesome.”
For sure, Hudson is starting to display at UNO the same set of all-around skills that made him a fan favorite with the USHL's Storm. He plays with speed, power and aggression. He has contributed on both of the power-play and penalty-kill units, and he has become one of the team's most reliable centers at winning faceoffs.
In fact, a draw won by Hudson led directly to Ambroz's last goal. It happened on Jan. 16 at Lake Superior State, when Hudson quickly pulled the puck back to Ambroz on a faceoff deep in the Lakers' zone. The bang-bang play took barely a second to unfold, and it ended with Ambroz blasting a shot into the net before Lake State's goalie could move.
“His confidence level is definitely up,” Ambroz said of Hudson. “He just seems to work harder and get better every day, and it's really starting to show every weekend.”
Coming off a sweep of Northern Michigan, Hudson and the Mavericks hope to keep building momentum on Friday and Saturday when they play a two-game series at Notre Dame.
Hudson said UNO was hungry to put together back-to-back strong performances. The dominant showing against the Wildcats, the sophomore said, could be just the spark the team needed to ignite a second-half push.
“We've had that taste of success,” Hudson said, “so we know we can't let up.”
Contact the writer:
444-1207, chad.purcell@owh.com
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