Avalanche take down Wenatchee

WASILLA — Last season, Wenatchee wasn’t just a nemesis of the Alaska Avalanche. With 10 wins in 14 regular season meetings and another three during a best-of-5 first-round playoff series, the Wild seemed to be Alaska’s kryptonite.

But on Friday, it were the Avs who were super.

Alaska used a pair of Jake Parenteau goals and Landon Peterson’s 25-save shutout to post a 4-0 win over the North American Hockey League-leading Wild at the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena on Friday evening.

“We had a tough week of practice. We knew what we had to do, and we came out and did it,” second-year forward Logan Rounds said.

Parenteau and former Colony High School standout Blake Huppert each found the back of the net during a 65-second span early in the third period to help the Avs seal the win over the Wild, who entered the contest with a league-best 16-3-0 mark.

Rounds also scored for the Avs, who improved to 9-3-1 overall.

Peterson stopped all 25 shots he saw to record the first shutout of the season against Wenatchee.

Parenteau, who is now tied for the lead in goals by a defensemen, factored into both of Alaska’s third-period scores.

“He was a leader,” Alaska head coach Dave Boitz said of Parenteau. “Wenatchee, you talk about their defensemen, but I thought Jake was by far the best defenseman on the ice tonight.”

Just more than four minutes into the third period, the Minnesota native blasted a shot from the slot. Parenteau’s attempt came off the back wall and bounced back up toward the right circle. Huppert crashed and slapped the puck past Wenatchee goalie Mac Curruth.

Just more than a minute later, Parenteau raced down the left boards, picked up a loose puck, skated through the Wenatchee defensive zone and lifted a quick shot over the shoulder of Carruth.

Boitz was impressed with his team’s ability to open up the tight game with the third-period scores.

“We’ve blown some leads. That was big to be able to come out and not let down,” Boitz said.

Parenteau gave the Avs the early lead, when he flipped a quick wrist shot past Carruth. With Alaska skating on the power play, second-year forward Matthew Friese dropped a pass back to Parenteau, who walked the puck up through the right circle and fired a shot on the Wenatchee net.

In the second period, former Service standout Logan Rounds gave Alaska the 2-0 lead.

Nardo Nagtzaam, skating down the left size of the ice, led a 2-on-1 break. Nagtzaam passed the puck across the front of the crease to Rounds, who was at the right side of the net.

Overall, Boitz applauded his team’s complete effort, and ability to bounce back from sub-par performances during a pair of losses to Bismarck early last week.

“We kind of laid an egg there,” Boitz said, referring to the losses to the Bobcats. “We had a good week-and-a-half of practice, and the guys played well tonight.”

Since the losses to Bismarck, Boitz said he’s stressed the need for consistency.

And the Avs seemed to respond.

“We came out and played three good periods,” Boitz said. “I thought it was a good, complete effort on our end. That’s what I’ve been talking to these guys about. That mental toughness, being consistent, being able to play good all the time.”

Peterson recorded the second shutout of the season for the Avs. Kale Robertson blanked Kenai River early in the season. But before Robertson’s shutout, Alaska had not kept an opponent scoreless since the 2005-06 season, when the Avs were known as the Wasilla Spirit.

“Landon Peterson’s a great goalie. We’ve got two great goalies,” Rounds said.

Peterson made, arguably, his biggest stops of the contest, on back-to-back attempts just seconds after Parenteau gave the Avs the 1-0 lead in the first.

“Those were really key saves,” Boitz said.

On Saturday, Wenatchee was able to slip past Alaska with a 3-2 shootout win.

Seth Johnson and Kyle Pichler each scored for the Avs.

Both Avalanche scores tied the game for Alaska. Johnson netted the score at 1-1 when he found the back of the net just less than five minutes into the first.

Pichler evened the score at 2-2 with his goal midway through the second.

Mitch Torrel provided both goals for Wenatchee.

Dustin McKeller was credited for the game-winning goal in the shootout.

Throughout the weekend, the Avs donned the special pink jerseys, in recognition of the battle against breast cancer.

Jerseys worn by each one of the players was auctioned off during the game. Proceeds from the auction will go toward breast cancer research.

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

Alaska 4, Wenatchee 0

Friday, Menard Arena

First period — 1. Alaska- Parenteau (Friese, Rounds) pp 8:28.

Second period — 2. Alaska- Rounds (Nagtzaam, Smith) 14:32.

Third period — 3. Alaska- Huppert (Parenteau) 4:22, 4. Alaska- Parenteau (unassisted) 5:17.

Shots on goal: Wenatchee 10-8-7—25, Alaska 10-17-8—35; Saves: Wenatchee- Carruth 9-16-6—31, Alaska- Peterson 10-8-7—25; Power plays: Wenatchee 0-for-2, Alaska 1-for-3.

Wenatchee 3, Alaska 2 SO

Saturday, Menard Arena

First period — 1. Wenatchee- Torrel (Young, Parker) 3:41, 2. Alaska- Johnson (Kinnebrew, Parenteau) 4:54.

Second period — 3. Wenatchee- Torrel (Young) sh 9:32, 4. Alaska- Pichler (Haider, Kinnebrew) 16:39.

Third period — no scoring.

Overtime — no scoring.

Shootout — Duncan McKellar.

Shots on goal: Wenatchee 9-13-7-1-1—31, Alaska 9-9-13-2-0—33; Saves: Wenatchee- Carruth 8-8-13-2-0—31, Alaska- Robertson 8-12-7-1-0—28; Power plays: Wenatchee 0-for-2, Alaska 0-for-2.