Avs Look Ahead

Jeremiah Bartz

Frontiersman

WASILLA — It was fairly difficult for Jamie Smith to get a real accurate assessment of his team when his Alaska Avalanche squad took the ice for the first time this season on Friday.

The first-year head coach and general manager spent most of the first period of a 6-2 loss to the Kenai River Brown Bears, watching the Avalanche penalty kill unit.

“It’s tough,” Smith said Monday. “You don’t know where you’re at in a game marred with so many penalties.”

The Avs took the first six penalties of the contest, and were whistled 14 times in the game.

Skating against the one, and sometimes, two-man advantage, for most of the first 20 minutes, the fatigue factor certainly set in for the Valley-based Junior A hockey squad. And that contributed to Kenai River’s 12-3 advantage in shots in the third period.

“Our ponies ran out of gas,” Smith said.

But on the positive side, Smith saw strength in his special teams.

“Our penalty kill was fantastic,” Smith said. “(Kenai River was) 2-for-11 on the power play. That’s the nice part about it.”

Smith also said he liked what he saw of his team’s power play. Former Wasilla High School standout Jeremiah Dargis scored Alaska’s first goal of the year, a power-play tally, and the Avs finished 1-for-6 with the man-advantage. The Alaska power play also generated some other good opportunities, Smith said.

Dargis leads a group of Alaska players new to the Junior A level.

“They young guys played really well,” Smith said. “Dargis, (Kyle) Pichler, (Dylan) Jones.”

Pichler and Jones helped lead South Anchorage High School to an Alaska large-schools hockey title last spring.

Overall, Smith said, when the Avs were at even strength, the team played well. He was happy with the work on the forecheck, and glad to see his team get some quality chances on goal.

The Avs had five shots ring off the post in the loss.

And despite the number of penalties, Alaska fought through.

“We battled through the adversity, all the penalties,” Smith said, noting the teams were deadlocked until the final minute of the second period.

But in the future, he doesn’t want to see his team take so many penalties, and will look for some of those chances to end up in the back of the opponent’s net.

“All of the penalties, all of the power plays,” Smith said. “that’s not something we want every game.”

The 2007-08 edition of the Alaska Avalanche is exactly two weeks old. The team started its preseason training camp on Sept. 4, just 10 days before the first game.

Smith said the coaching staff has had just a few days to help bring together a team that features 20 new players, and insert a new system. But in the next week will be a good indication about where the Avs are out, Smith said.

On Wednesday, Alaska will play the first of its four games in the annual North American Hockey League Showcase in Blaine, Minn. The Avs face Fargo-Moorhead on Wednesday at 9 a.m. AST, St. Louis on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. AST, Traverse City at 1:30 p.m. AST and Springfield at 7 a.m. AST.

Showcase games can be seen live, with a small charge, on the B2 Web site. See the Alaska Web site, www.akavalanche.com for a link and information.

Alaska’s game on Wednesday marks the start of a 10-game, 27-day road trip. Following the Showcase, the Avs have two-game series at Topeka (Kan.), Southern Minnesota and Alexandria (Minn.).

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