It’s another season with no Clark Cup appearance for the Omaha Lancers, but there’s still a significant Omaha presence in the United States Hockey League’s championship series.
Indiana Ice goalie Jason Pawloski is a born-and-raised Omahan who grew up attending UNO hockey games (and some Lancer games) while wondering about one day playing high-level hockey.
“I never really thought I’d be at this point, to be honest,” Pawloski said. “I played AAA in Omaha and I was all right on that team, but that’s just an Omaha team and there’s a lot more people out there who are also good.”
Last year, Pawloski earned a spot with the Austin (Minn.) Bruins of the North American Hockey League, one tier below the USHL. After going 17-3-2 with a 2.52 goals against-average and .919 save percentage, he was drafted by the Ice. He quickly became the team’s top goalie this season, and went 27-8-6 with a 2.46 GAA and a .904 save percentage while helping the Ice earn the top seed in the Eastern Conference at 42-11-7.
“I really didn’t know what to expect when I got here,” Pawloski said. “I came in with another good goaltender (Samu Perhonen of Finland, a former third-round pick of the Edmonton Oilers), but he isn’t with us now. I didn’t know how much I was going to play at first. And we had another good goaltender come in and we’ve worked very well together.”
Though Hayden Stewart started and won Indiana’s first playoff game, then started the second game of the series with Green Bay, the Ice have turned to Pawloski almost exclusively since — and he’s responded brilliantly, going 5-1 with a 1.13 GAA and .947 save percentage in the postseason. He closed out the first-round series with back-to-back 1-0 wins on the road, making a total of 34 saves, before continuing his strong play in a sweep of Dubuque.
“The guys in front of me have been doing really well, and I owe all of it to them,” Pawloski said. “We’ve really done well as a team to make it this far.”
Pawloski, 18, has committed to play for longtime Lancers coach and former UNO assistant Mike Hastings at Minnesota State-Mankato. But he’s scheduled to play one more season in the USHL first. He’s still young and Minnesota State already has quality goalies in Cole Huggins and Stephon Williams.
“There’s always stuff I can learn, and it’ll be good for me to have another year in the USHL,” Pawloski said. “There are other things, school-wise, that I can work on, too.”
Pawloski, who attended Omaha Westside as a freshman and sophomore, currently takes his high school classes online while living with a billet family just outside Indianapolis.
He said he got his start in hockey at around age five and within a year or two had become a full-time goalie. At 6-foot and 185 pounds, he’s athletic in the crease.
He got help locally from Corey Wogtech and Todd Jones, both of whom have served as UNO goaltending coaches. Pawloski reunited with Wogtech this season in Indiana, where he serves as a goaltending consultant.
Pawloski also credited the coaching staff in Austin for putting him on his current path — they invited him to a tryout, then gave him a chance and helped him develop.
NHL draft-eligible for the first time, Pawloski was No. 34 among North American goaltenders on the NHL Central Scouting midterm rankings in January.
“I don’t even want to focus on that right now,” Pawloski said. “I’d rather win a Clark Cup.”
Indiana opens its best-of-five series with Waterloo on the road Friday, with Game 2 Saturday also in Waterloo. Waterloo was 44-11-5 during the regular season to earn the Western Conference’s top seed and split its two regular-season games with the Ice. The series shifts to Indianapolis next weekend.
“It’s pretty exciting to be here,” Pawloski said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. A chance to win a championship with your teammates, your brothers, doesn’t come around very often.”