Alaska looks to end road skid against Wild

WENATCHEE, Wash. — With 16 games left in the regular season and one point separating second-place Alaska and third-place Wenatchee in the North American Hockey League West Division standings, the Wild could be thinking their series with the Avs this weekend is a battle for home ice in the first round of the NAHL playoffs.

“I’m assuming there’s going to be a playoff-type atmosphere,” Alaska head coach Brian Huebel said of the series that starts tonight at 6:05 p.m. AST at the Toyota Town Center in Wenatchee. “Wenatchee is going to put a lot of stock in it, and we’ve got to put a lot of stock on it.”

But more than that, Huebel said, the Avs need to rebound from a tough weekend in Dawson Creek, Canada, which included three straight losses to the Rage.

“For us, it’s about getting back on track,” Huebel said. “For the fans, it might be about a battle for home ice, but for the coaches, it’s about getting the team playing a way we want them to play.”

Alaska trailed early during each of the three losses to the Rage, losses that left the Avs four points shy of first-place Fairbanks in the NAHL West standings.

“The key thing is I don’t think at any given stretch of good length of time were playing out style. We played lethargic. We didn’t finish checks,” Huebel said. “We did it in one- or two-minute punches, but not periods.

“Them getting up on us was a byproduct of that.”

Alaska trailed 2-0 in the first period of a 3-2 shootout loss, 5-0 in the second period of a 6-3 defeat and 3-1 at the end of a first period of a 5-4 loss in the series finale. The Avs also outshot the Rage in every game of the series.

“Playing catch-up against good goaltending and a hot goalie is the hard part,” Huebel said.

Alaska has faced Wenatchee four times this season, splitting a pair of two-game series.

“I think we kind of mirror each other a bit in styles,” Huebel said.

All four of those games were decided against just one goal.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/matsu_sports.