Candace Riley//The Sooners celebrate a goal against Missouri State October 17.    

    It’s been almost a month since the Sooners last took the ice, as they’ve been off since finals week at OU. The extended break gives us a chance to look back on what the Sooners accomplished this fall and look ahead to what awaits them in the second half of the season. 

    The Sooners took a 14-4-0 record into winter break, including an 8-4-0 mark in WCHL play. They checked in at No. 18 in the most recent ACHA computer poll and climbed to second in the WCHL standings, trailing only Arizona, which is seeking back-to-back conference titles. Unfortunately, the Sooners and Wildcats played all three of their matchups in the first half of the season, so there won’t be any climactic first-place-vs-second-place games to help decide the conference championship.

However, OU fans still have a lot of great games to look forward to in the first two months of 2020, as the Sooners have some major non-conference opponents lined up. The remaining WCHL matchups aren’t without intrigue, either. So, without further ado, let’s take a series-by-series look at the Sooners’ schedule for the latter half of the season. All home games will be broadcast live on Black Dog Hockey.

@ Midland (Jan. 17-18)

    The Sooners open 2020 with a trip to Nebraska for a rematch with Midland. Oklahoma didn’t have too much trouble with the Warriors when they visited Blazers Ice Centre in November, notching a pair of 4-2 wins without trailing in either game. The key to ensuring this series goes as smoothly as the first one will be limiting penalties; Midland scored three of their four goals on the power play that weekend. 

Colorado State (Jan 23.), Colorado (Jan. 24-25)

    If this series plays out anything like it did when the Sooners traveled to Colorado in October, buckle up. In the opening game against CU, the teams were tied 1-1 after two periods, but the Buffaloes came out swinging in the first half of the third period, scoring three goals in just over 10 minutes. With their backs against the wall, the Sooners managed to counter with their own scoring burst, as Josh Pusar and Paolo De Sousa trimmed the deficit before Isaac Bosse tied the game with just 45 seconds on the clock. Pusar would come up big again in the shootout as the only player to find the back of the net for either team. 

The following night’s game against Colorado State was mellow by comparison, as the Sooners cruised to a 5-2 win. The same could not be said for the second game against the Rams, as three Sooners were ejected in the first period and CSU scored a pair of goals late in the third to steal a 4-3 win. 

@ No. 4 Lindenwood (Jan. 31-Feb. 1), @ Maryville (Feb. 2)

The Sooners head to the outskirts of St. Louis to face perennial power Lindenwood before capping off the weekend with a game at the brand-new Maryville University Hockey Center. The Lions hosted Oklahoma for a pair of games early last season, winning both. In the first game, the Sooners battled back from a three-goal deficit to tie the game in the 3rd period before Lindenwood scored two late goals to win 5-3. The next day, the Lions scored six goals in the 2nd period to coast to an 8-1 win. 

This season’s Lindenwood squad, while still very good, hasn’t looked quite as invincible as the 2018-19 team that finished the regular season 27-1-0 and earned the No. 1 seed in the ACHA National Tournament. The Lions are 11-5-0 so far, with three of those losses coming at the hands of UCO. As for Maryville, the Sooners opened the season with a pair of dominant wins over the Saints, but MU has shown steady improvement in their first season as a D1 program and shouldn’t be written off. They swept a two-game series at Missouri State in early December, outscoring the Ice Bears 12-4.

@ Missouri State (Feb. 7-8)

    The Sooners head right back to Missouri for their second-to-last WCHL matchup. While UCO will always be the opponent OU fans most look forward to facing, MSU should have become a fairly close second by now, as the Sooners and Ice Bears have produced some thrilling games in recent years. Six of the last nine Oklahoma-Missouri State games have been decided by one goal; of those six one-goal games, four were decided in overtime or a shootout. That includes the first time these teams met this season, when Paolo De Sousa scored with 11 seconds left in OT to give the Sooners a 4-3 win. 

No. 4 Lindenwood (Feb. 15-16)

    Just as they did last season, the Sooners host the Lions two weeks after visiting them. The second series with Lindenwood went much better for Oklahoma, as they were able to keep both games relatively close, losing 3-1 in the first game and 4-2 in the second game. Despite the score, the latter game was one of Oklahoma’s most impressive efforts of the season; although Lindenwood outshot the Sooners 41-15, the Lions didn’t take the lead until the 3rd period. 

No. 12 UCO (Feb. 21), @ UCO (Feb. 22)

    The second edition of the I-35 Rivalry is typically when both teams hold their senior night festivities, so expect a pair of emotional, hotly-contested games as the Sooners and Bronchos close out WCHL play. The teams split their first meeting in December as Scott Joy broke a 2-2 tie with 18 seconds left in regulation to give Oklahoma its first home win over UCO since 2016 before the Bronchos responded with a 4-1 win at Arctic Edge Ice Arena the following night.

@ No. 21 Iowa State (Feb. 28-29)

    Fun fact: Oklahoma, Iowa State, and West Virginia are the only Big 12 schools with D1 hockey teams. The Sooners’ regular season finale at Iowa State will mark the first time they’ve faced a fellow Big 12 school in hockey since their previous trip to Ames in October 2017. The Cyclones made the ACHA title game as the No. 5 seed last season but lost 3-1 to Minot State. This year, Iowa State is 3-2-1 against WCHL teams; the Cyclones split with Missouri State in Ames, were swept by UCO in Edmond, and swept Colorado State in Fort Collins.