Avs earn shootout win over Bismarck

WASILLA - When all is said and done, the Alaska Avalanche may look back on Saturday's 4-3 shootout win over the Bismarck Bobcats as a key point of their 2006-07 campaign.

The Avalanche, finally off a grueling 11-game road trek that lasted more than a month, scored a shootout victory for the second time in three nights.

John Grossi put the puck in the upper shelf of the Bismarck net to give Alaska the shootout win.

With the wins against Bismarck, Alaska earned a key four points during the three-game series.

&#8220It was huge for us,” Alaska head coach Dean Larson said. &#8220This weekend was huge, and next weekend Is going to be even bigger.”

The Avs host intrastate rival Fairbanks in a three-game series starting Friday at the Menard Arena.

Larson said the Avalanche knew they had to take advantage of their first opportunity to play on their home ice since early October. After playing 20 of their first 21 games on the road, Alaska finds itself in the middle of a tough battle in the lower half of the North American Hockey League's South Division.

Alaska was able to muscle out to an early 2-0 lead, something it had not been able to do in the first two games of the series. In both the 4-3 shootout win on Thursday and the 5-1 loss on Friday, Alaska was forced to play from behind. Larson said his effort on Saturday was dramatically different from what he saw in Friday's loss.

&#8220I didn't think we had any character. I don't think we worked hard. I don't think we played like a Junior A hockey team,” Larson said of his team's performance in the four-goal loss. &#8220That was our main focus tonight - come out and compete.”

Johnny Spellman and Victor Nordenson gave Alaska the early lead with goals in the first half of the first period.

Both scores could be credited to Alaska crashing hard to the net.

Grossi set up Spellman's goal, dumping the puck and sending it toward the Bobcat net. When the puck bounced off the stick of Bismarck goalie Tim Krytosek, Spellman and Graffunder stormed toward the net. In traffic, Spellman was able to knock in the score.

Three minutes later, Nordenson poked in a rebound created by a Richard Leitner shot on an Alaska power play.

Chris Nicolaou, a newcomer to the Alaska lineup, gave the Avalanche a 3-2 lead in the third period. Nicolaou intercepted a Bismarck pass in their own zone, and quickly fired a wrist shot past Krytosek.

Bismarck captain Brett Calhoun put in a shot from the point on the power play midway through the third to tie the game, and force overtime.

Alaska and Bismark combined for 13 shots in the shootout, before Grossi was able to put in the game-winner. On his score, Grossi skated to the left of the net, turned and put a shot in the upper part of the net.

Alaska netminder Adam Kraus turned away all seven of the shots he faced in the shootout.

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