Written by: Andy Chaves
If not for one typo, the Lancers’ 0-48 season may never have happened.
If not for one typo, there’s a good chance that we wouldn’t be producing this documentary.
Through our research and interviews, we have discovered that while several factors contributed to the Omaha Lancers going winless for the 1986-87 season, the main underlying cause was simply that they didn’t have the talent throughout their line up to compete with other USHL teams. And while one player wouldn’t have necessarily turned the Lancers’ season around, it’s very possible that even one player could have tipped the score sheet just enough to get the Lancers in the win column that long first season.
Just one day after owner and founder Tom Edwards publicly announced the Omaha Lancers would begin play in the USHL, coaches and owners from across the league gathered in Mason City, Iowa for the annual league meetings and player draft.
“I don’t know that they (the Edwards) had the experience or anybody to work with on how to get a USHL team together.” Said Brian Knieriem, a forward on the 1986-87 Lancers. “There were guys I played against in the USHL at Denver University and I know those coaches that had been coaching for years in the USHL knew how to do it. They looked at rosters, looked at ages, looked at anything they could to grab a player and get rights.”
As the draft progressed, the Lancers and the other nine teams took turns selecting their players.
Enter Rick Berens.
For dozens of American teenage hockey players, the best route to D1 hockey (and perhaps beyond) was through the USHL. And in the summer of 1986, Rick Berens was looking for his own path to hockey success. The Lancers liked what they saw in him, and selected him to be one of the very first Omaha Lancers.
Another coach had his eye on Berens as well: Rochester Mustangs’ head coach (and current Air Force Academy head coach) Frank Serratore. “Rick Berens was a kid I wanted pretty bad. When they drafted him I was like, ‘Geez, I wanted Ricky Berens.’” Serratore reflected during our interview with him.
According to Serratore, when you drafted a player you had to state the player’s name, hometown, and birth date. But the Lancers’ brass made a critical mistake that may have changed the course of Omaha Lancers history.
“When they drafted him they gave Palantine, Illinois, and they gave his birthdate. And they gave the wrong birthdate.” Serratore recalled. “I feel bad now….[but] I waited for my last pick and I drafted Rick Berens from Palantine, IL…with THIS birthdate. And I ended up getting Rick Berens on a technicality.”
And just like that, because of a typo, the Lancers missed out on Rick Berens.
Knieriem recalls, “A coach looked at his birthday and it was wrong, so he called them on that and went on to play in Rochester. Otherwise [Berens] was in Omaha, and that would've changed things.”
How much would Berens have changed things in Omaha? It’s impossible to know exactly, but consider that during the 1986-87 season, Berens scored 43 goals and totaled 84 points on a Rochester team that won the Anderson Cup as the USHL regular season champion, the Clark Cup as the playoff champion, and the US Junior A national championship. In fact Berens’ 43 goals were more than the Lancers’ top 4 scorers combined! And his 84 points were more than the Omaha’s top 3 players combined!
So let’s go down the rabbit hole. Would Berens have made enough of a difference to notch a couple of wins? While the Lancers were outscored more than 9-2 on an average night, not all of their games were blowouts. Seven of their games were decided by 3 goals or less, including 3 decided by 1 goal or less. Berens’ 43 goals that season were scored in 40 games, meaning he averaged more than one goal per game that season.
Do the math.
Of course this is all in theory, but it’s certainly plausible that having Rick Berens on the roster would have contributed to one or possibly more Lancer victories that season.
For those keeping score at home, the following season Rick Berens enrolled at the University of Denver, and was named Freshman of the Year in the WCHA, totaling 28 goals and 48 points in 39 games. To this day Rick Berens is still the University of Denver’s all-time goal-scoring leader, with 94 goals over his four seasons as a Pioneer.
What could have been.
Thanks to EliteProspects.com and the University of Denver Sports Information for statistics.