Avs embark on long road trip

WASILLA — The next 11 games could determine whether the Alaska Avalanche are still playing in April, or if they’ll skate off the ice for the final time when the regular season ends on March 29.

“This whole trip coming up is huge for us,” Alaska head coach and general manager Jamie Smith said Wednesday as he was preparing for an 11-game road trek that includes series’ against Fairbanks, Wichita Falls, Texas and Topeka. “This could make or break our season.”

The Avs start the trip with a two-game set against the intrastate rival Ice Dogs, that starts tonight at the Big Dipper Ice Arena in Fairbanks.

Next week, the Avs travel to Texas to face the Wichita Falls Wildcats in a pair of two-game sets on consecutive weekends. Alaska stays in the Lone Star State to face the Texas Tornado three times before heading north to Kansas to face Topeka twice.

“If we could win half our games, or even 40 percent, it would vault us into the next echelon,” Smith said.

Three of Alaska’s four opponents during the trip are currently ahead of the Avalanche in the North American Hockey League’s South Division

standings.

Wichita Falls (21-10-2) is first with 43 points, followed by Fairbanks (19-9-2) with 40 and Topeka (5-8-4) with

34.

Alaska (14-15-2) is in fourth with 30 points.

The fourth opponent, Texas (9-23-3) is currently in last place with 21 points, but the Tornado are just a point shy of fifth-place Kenai River (8-18-6).

As the Avs prepare for the long road trip that continues through Jan. 30, Smith knows Alaska will have to get more consistent play out of its defense.

Alaska has surrendered an average of 3.77 goals per game, sixth-worst in the North American Hockey League, and a league-high 38.9 shots per game.

Last week, Alaska traded defenseman J.C. Richardson, formerly the team’s captain, to Marquette, and the Avs are currently on the look-out for another blueliner.

In the meantime, Smith said the Avs will look to Anchorage native Jason Cohen, a veteran of both the NAHL and the British Columbia Hockey League, to step into a more prominent role on the blue line.

Smith feels he has four solid blueliners to build a defense around — Kent Detlefsen, Teddy Zierden, Nick Kelly and Cohen — and has others the team can develop. But the key for the Avs will be getting that consistent play from the top four defenseman so the team can help develop the fifth and sixth blueliners.

To help on defense, the Avs are also moving forward Michael McCurtain to the back line.

Alexander Winnick and Kevin Anger are also in the mix on defense.

While the Avs are still looking to improve on the defensive side of the ice, that’s where the strength of the Ice Dogs is.

“The thing about them is they’re good from the blueline back,” Smith said.

Fairbanks leads the league with only 62 goals allowed. Cody Reichard is the top goalie in the NAHL with a 1.95 goals against average.

The Ice Dogs also have only five players with a negative plus-minus rating, and four of those players are at a -1.

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