Avalanche hit the rink

PALMER — The Alaska Avalanche dropped the puck on a new era Monday morning, and so far, first-year head coach Corey Millen and assistant Josh Petrich like what they see.

“Everyone was enthusiastic. There was good energy. Everyone was working hard,” Millen said shortly after the Avs spent about two hours on the ice during the team’s first official practice of the 2011-12 season. “For the first day, it went pretty well.”

It’s the first time the Avs coaches had a chance to see the current group of 26 on the MTA Events Center ice, and it’s the first chance the coaches have seen some players skate outside of a few days at the team’s offseason camps.

Even though it’s early, Millen said he’s encouraged with what he’s seeing.

“I do think we have a good group of guys, a good, hard-working group of kids,” Millen said. “We’ll learn a lot more come the (NAHL) Showcase, but I think that’s where everyone’s at.”

The Avs make their 2011-12 debut Sept. 14 at the NAHL Showcase, the league’s season-opening event in Blaine, Minn. Until then, Millen and Petrich will be working to prepare the team for not only the Showcase, but the Avs’ 60-game schedule.

The Avs skate into preseason practices with 15 forwards, eight defensemen and three goaltenders. As of Monday, there were 26 athletes on the roster. NAHL teams must cut to 25 by Thursday and 23 by Oct. 3.

Seven veterans return to the Avs from a squad that finished with a franchise-record 32 wins last year. The Avs were third in the NAHL West Division with a 32-22-4 mark and 68 points in the standings.

Alaska was swept by rival Wenatchee in the first round of the league playoffs.

Veteran blueliner Joe Schmitz is among the players back on the squad, and is expected to be one of the top leaders on the team. Schmitz, a 6-foot-3 defenseman, posted 5 goals and 12 assists and a plus-3 rating while skating in 55 of his team’s 58 games during the regular season.

Forwards Brandon Brossoit (15-21-36), Wehebe Darge (8-16-24), Ross Pavek (13-6-19), Evan Hesse (6-9-15) and Cody Bisbing (3-3-6) also return.

Goalie Nick Kulmanovsky, who was acquired right before the deadline in a trade with Wenatchee last winter, also returns. Kulmanovsky, who heads into the preseason as the apparent No. 1 goaltender, was 3-3-0 with a 3.27 goals against in six regular-season starts with the Avs.

Defenseman Casey Nelson, who recorded 1-5-6 totals in 29 games before suffering a season-ending injury last year, has returned to Palmer. Goalie Blake Mendenhall, an Anchorage native who was released after making 14 starts with the Avs as a rookie last year, is also back for another shot in the NAHL.

Alaska’s five returning forwards are among 15 front-liners currently on the Avs roster. Millen said a key will be finding the forwards eager to step up and become top scorers.

“I don’t think we have a ton of natural scoring ability up front, but we’re hoping we can score by committee,” Millen said. “We’re going to need some guys to step up. I think there’s a lot of kids who want to take on that role.”

The Avs have vets who showed that ability last year. Brossoit, who was acquired in a trade with Wenatchee, started the 2010-11 season on fire, recording at least a point in 15 of his first 20 games in an Avs sweater. He scored goals in 10 of those 20 games. Brossoit finished the year sixth on the team with 36 points.

Hesse finished his rookie season strong, with points in nine of his last 26 games. Darge was 10th on the team with 16 assists.

Millen said those are among the veterans who could be up for the scoring challenge.

“Guys like that I think they want it, want that role,” Millen said. “I think they can fill that role. Let’s hope they can take that next step.”

Millen is also excited about some of the newcomers. Among them is Gage Christianson, an Anchorage native who was acquired in an offseason trade with Wenatchee.

“He’s a natural goal-scorer. He’s done that all his life,” Millen said of Christianson, a former East Anchorage skater. “He’s a kid who has a real knack for finding the net.”

Another Anchorage native who could provide a scoring boost is Codey Hansen. The former Service player skated for Drayton Valley of the Canadian Tier II Alberta Junior Hockey League last year.

“Codey Hansen, we hope he can score,” Millen said.

The Avs also have a handful of forwards who were prolific scorers for their midget and high school teams. Evan Janssen tallied 45-29-74 totals in 25 games as a senior at Green Bay United in Green Bay, Wisc. Jansssen scored more than 150 points as a high school player.

Ryan Dau, another Wisconsin native, bagged 20-21-41 numbers, as a senior at Hudson High. Dau, a Wisconsin all-state honorable mention, has already committed to Air Force.

Nolan Meyer tallied 32-18-50 totals in 27 games as a senior at Cloquet (Minn.) High.

Christianson and Hansen are among four Alaskan forwards on the roster. Shane Topf (Eagle River) and Matt Sanford (North Pole) are also among the 15 forwards. Topf collected five assists in 35 games as a rookie with rival Kenai River last year. Sanford, appeared in seven games with the NAHL’s New Mexico Mustangs, but spent most of his 2010-11 season with the Idaho Junior Steelheads of the Western States Hockey League. Sanford finished with 14-20-34 totals in 30 games.

Forwards Andrew Thurby (Fenton, Mo.) and Mitch Kontny (Superior, Wisc.) are also on the roster. The Avs recently added Sam Khongmuk, a recruit from Lundsbrunn, Sweden.

Kontny led Omaha of the North American Prospects Hockey League with a team-high 21 points.

Schmitz leads the eight defenseman currently on the roster. Alaska has NAHL veterans such as Schmitz, Nelson and Patrick Kinkopf, who was also acquired in an offseason trade with Wenatchee. But there is a fair amount of young talent on the list.

“We do have some good, young defensemen, we think, but the key word there is young,” Millen said. “We are young and we’ll have some growing pains there, but by the middle of the season and the second half of the season, we’re hoping they’re good Junior A performers.”

Chris Buchanan, Jesse Kessler, Bryan McFarlane, Zach Mertes and Troy Olson are the first-year blueliners new to the program.

Buchanan, a veteran of the of the San Jose Jr. Sharks AAA program of the NAPHL, has been compared to a young Schmitz by past Avs coaches. Buchanan collected 5-19-24 totals in 37 regular season games.

Kessler, a native of Franklin, Tenn., also played in the NAPHL, scoring 7-12-19 totals with the AAA Thunder.

Olson had 1-8-9 totals in 20 games with Omaha of the NAPHL.

Kinkopf posted three points and a plus-4 rating in 27 games with the Wild last year.

McFarlane skated for the Madison Capitals, a midget AAA team, last year. Mertes captained his Forest Lake High team last year, netting 1-13-14 totals.

Kulmanovsky heads into the season as the apparent No. 1, but Millen said the Avs have three goalies hungry for time between the pipes.

“Right now, they all look good,” Millen said. “I think Nick’s going to be the one we’re going to lead on, but when it’s said and done, they’re probably all going to get a chance. It comes down to who stops pucks.”

Kulmanovsky is in his second year in the league, but is still young at 17. The Fairbanks native, who played at the highly regarded Culver Academy in Indiana, made a combined 15 starts during his time with the Wild and Avs. He has a career 7-6-0 mark with a 2.99 GAA.

First-year goalie Bodhi Engum was a standout at Burnsville High, the Minnesota school that produced former Avs forward Andy Pearson. Engum was 18-5-3 with a 2.52 GAA as a senior. Engum was named second-team all-state in Minneosta.

Mendenhall, who was Alaska’s Player of the Year as a senior at West Anchorage, is back with the Avs. Mendenhall was 5-8-0 with the Avs before finishing the season with Idaho of the WSHL.

Even though the Avs are more than two weeks away from the season-opener, the coaches are eager to see the team in live action against another squad. The Avs will scrimmage the Alaska All-Stars AAA team Wednesday at the MTA Events Center in Palmer. The Avs will also face an all-star team Sept. 9 at the Subway Sports Center in Anchorage at 7:15 p.m.

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