Alaska back on the road

WASILLA — Well, it’s official. The Alaska Avalanche are going to be spending a lot of time in Wenatchee, Wash.

Not only will the Avalanche travel to Wenatchee to face the North American Hockey League West Division rival Wild four times in the next six days, the Avs will be back in early April for the first round of the NAHL playoffs.

Wenatchee (32-19-3) has already clinched the West Division’s second seed and right to host third-seeded Alaska in the best-of-five first-round series. Alaska sits at 22-27-3, 20 points behind Wenatchee, with only six games to go.

And with the second seed comes the most true form of home ice advantage for the Wild. The current NAHL playoff format gives the higher seed of the series home ice in every game during the first round to help reduce travel costs, Alaska head coach Dave Boitz said.

Add that first-round best-of-five series to the four regular-season games, and the Avalanche could potentially play nine times at Wenatchee in a span of about three weeks.

The road series begins Wednesday at 6:05 p.m. AST.

It could be an up-hill battle for Alaska, the third seed from the West Division, but a challenge the Avs are willing to take.

“We’ve been playing pretty good on the road,” Alaska forward Kyle Pichler said after Alaska’s 3-2 win over Wenatchee last week.

That victory was Alaska’s second in 10 tries against Wenatchee, but five of those 10 games have been decided by just a single goal.

“We think we’ve out-worked them, but they’re a great team. They come out hard every night against us and they’ve got great goaltending,” Alaska forward Tyler Currier said about the Wild, who started the season with eight wins and an overtime loss against the Avs.

The Avs have averaged 34 shots per game against Wenatchee and two of the players on Alaska’s top line, Currier and Pichler, have combined for 19 points in 10 games against the Wild.

Alaska still has six games left in the regular season — four at Wenatchee before a two-game set at Fairbanks — but the Avs are already thinking playoffs, or at least doing whatever they can to ensure the team is healthy for the postseason.

“We’re a little banged up,” Boitz said.

Alaska could be without a handful of its leaders during the Wenatchee series. Assistant captain Justin Giles is still out, recovering from an ankle injury he suffered during a loss to Topeka.

Jason Cohen, another assistant captain, missed time during the series against Fairbanks last weekend.

Boitz also said captain Sean McNeely will take a break from manning his position on the blue line to get some much deserved rest.

Another blueliner, Beau Braun has also been banged up. But with only eight blueliners on the roster Boitz won’t be able to give his players as much rest as he’d like, he said.

With the need to rest the veterans, Boitz said he expects younger players such as forward Sean Randall and defenseman Tyler Krueger to see significant ice time.

Alaska and Wenatchee meet on Wednesday, and again on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Alaska’s final regular-season series of the year starts March 27 in Fairbanks.

The Ice Dogs clinched the West Division on Saturday with a 2-1 win over the Avs and will host fourth-seeded Kenai River in the division’s other best-of-five first-round series.

The winners of each series will meet in mid-April.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.