Avs look to muzzle Ice Dogs in Fairbanks

WASILLA — Alaska’s marathon of a month is down to its final stretch.

Alaska closes the 2008-09 regular season with a pair of games against the Fairbanks Ice Dogs at the Big Dipper Ice Arena in Fairbanks, tonight and Saturday. The series also caps a busy month of March, which included 14 games in 25 days.

“Some of these other teams haven’t quite had the schedule we’ve had,” Alaska head coach Dave Boitz said on Thursday.

Alaska started the month strong, winning four times in its first six games of March. But the busy schedule caught up with the Avs in the form of an 8-1 loss to Fairbanks on March 13.

“That 8-1 loss was definitely a fatigue type of deal,” Boitz said.

Since, Alaska has tried to work through the fatigue and get healthy for the first round of the playoffs.

Boitz said captain Sean McNeely, who has played in 54 of 56 games this season, will take a step away from his post on the blue line in favor of some much-deserved rest and take the weekend off. Defenseman Daniel Hildebrandt could also get a break this weekend.

Alaska is cemented into the third spot of the North American Hockey League West Division standings. While the Avs cannot move up or down in the standings, depending on the results this weekend, Alaska could still set a franchise record for wins in a season. The Avs currently sit at 23 victories, which equals the amount of wins the then-Wasilla Spirit posted 2005-06 season.

The Ice Dogs, who clinched the regular season division title earlier this season, are 26-12-8. Wenatchee, which took three straight from the Avs in Washington last week, is in second place at 35-19-4. Alaska (23-30-4) and Kenai River (14-36-8) are third and fourth respectively.

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