Avs, Ice Dogs battle for chance at home ice

WASILLA — The North American Hockey League postseason doesn’t officially begin for another month. But there are some who may argue that the playoffs have already started.

This weekend the Alaska Avalanche and Fairbanks Ice Dogs will be playing for the chance to skate one step closer to the chance to host a first-round playoff series.

Fairbanks hosts the Avs in a two-game set that starts tonight at 7 p.m. at the Big Dipper Ice Arena in Fairbanks. Only three points separate the NAHL foes in the West Division standings. Fairbanks (30-19-3, 63 points) currently sits in second place, while Alaska (27-17-6, 60 points) is in third. The games are also the final regular season meetings for the rivals.

“It’s a big weekend for us, no question,” Alaska head coach Dave Boitz said on Thursday. “We’d like to get the sweep, but we need to get at least one win for sure.”

If the final regular-season series between a pair of intrastate rivals separated by just three points in the division standings doesn’t create enough intrigue, the games will also be a certain sneak preview of a first-round playoff matchup. Wenatchee (39-8-3) has basically locked up the top seed in the division with 81 points, while fourth-place Kenai River (10-34-5) is destined to stay in the cellar. That leaves Fairbanks and Alaska fighting for that second seed and the right to host the first-round series.

Boitz said the Avs know this series is big. But they aren’t ready to hand the second seed to the team that comes out on top this weekend, regardless of which squad it is.

“No question they’re big games (this weekend), but a lot can happen,” Boitz said.

Alaska will have six left following this weekend, and all six games will be at the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena in Wasilla. Fairbanks has four left after this series, all at home. Overall, Boitz said he has confidence in his team’s ability to beat Fairbanks, regardless of where the playoff series is.

“We’d like to get home ice advantage, but we feel like we can beat them in the first round whether it’s on home ice or not,” Boitz said.

Alaska, a team that managed just a single win over Fairbanks last year, started off the season with three victories in its first four games against Fairbanks. But the Dogs have had the upper hand as of late, scoring eight straight wins against the Avs.

Fairbanks swept a three-game set in Wasilla in late February, but needed a nearly unbelievable performance from its goaltender, Joe Phillippi, to do so. Phillippi stopped 93 of the 94 shots he faced during the series.

“He played out of his mind,” Boitz said. “We felt good about how we played a lot of that weekend, but we ran into a hot goalie.”

Boitz said he counted more ‘Grade A’ scoring chances in the final game of that series alone that he did in three recent road games against the Alexandria Blizzard in Alexandria, Minn. And Alaska took two games of that three game-set against the Blizzard.

“Our goalie made some big saves, we played good defensively, our penalty kill was good,” Boitz said of his team’s efforts during that February three-game set against Fairbanks. “A lot of the things we set out to do, we did really, really well.”

Alaska was also without two of its top-five leading scorers for much of that series against Fairbanks. Defenseman Jake Parenteau, who leads the Avs in scoring with 40 points (14 goals, 26 assists) was out. Berkley Scott (16-16-32) was also out for a pair of games against Fairbanks.

Avs among

league leaders

Members of the Avs are among NAHL leaders.

Parenteau leads all blueliners in goals (14) and points (40). He’s also second in assists (26) and fifth in plus-minus rating (+23).

Forward Zach Smith is tied for third in the league with 26 goals. He also leads the NAHL with 208 penalty minutes.

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