Avs power forward

PALMER — During the past month, the Alaska Avalanche have powered their way to the top of the North American Hockey League West Division standings —literally.

The Avs have used stellar special teams play to finish 9-2-1 during its last dozen dates and move from fourth to first in the standings. Alaska’s averaged nearly four goals per game during that stretch, and many of those goals came on the power play.

Alaska, which opens a three-game series against Dawson Creek Thursday at the MTA Palmer Ice Arena, was 3-for-6 with the advantage during a 5-4 come-from-behind win over Wenatchee on Saturday. After finishing 0-for-9 on the power play during a loss to the Wild on Friday, the Avs just went back to a simple approach on the power play.

“I just kind of told them, move the puck quicker. We were allowing their penalty kill to step up,” Alaska assistant coach Sean Fish said by cell phone from Washington after the win.

That may sound like an easy answer — move the puck quicker — but that’s been a big reason why Alaska’s scored 18 times on the power play in the last 12 games.

Late last month, after Alaska scored all three of its goals on the power play during a 3-2 win over Wenatchee, Alaska head coach Brian Huebel said the Avs hadn’t spent a ton of time during practice fixating on the power play. It dawned upon the Avs, Huebel said, when Alaska was in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada, for a series early in the season, the Avs didn’t practice the power play and had a great weekend with the advantage. After that series, the Avs spent more time practicing the power play and didn’t see nearly as much success.

Overall, a big reason for Alaska’s success has been chemistry on the lines, and the Avs didn’t want to mess with that, Huebel said.

“You take guys with chemistry and you start to juggle with it, it doesn’t always work out,” Huebel said. “They guys are working great together.”

So instead of potentially overanalyzing things, Huebel said the Avs have played to their strengths — chemistry and quickness — while skating with the advantage. And it’s working out.

In the last 12 games, the Avs have 17 power-play goals. Alaska had only 16 during its first 18 games of the season. The Avs have a power-play percentage of 22 percent during the last 12 games. Take away that 0-for-9 performance on Friday night and they’d be at 25 percent.

The Avs are also now fifth in the league with 33 power-play goals.

Rage back in Palmer

The three-game series with the Dawson Creek Rage starts Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the MTA PIA.

Dawson Creek (10-17-2) was swept by the Fairbanks Ice Dogs during a three-game series at the Big Dipper Ice Arena last week. The Ice Dogs averaged seven goals per game in the series.

The Rage are in the middle of a stretch that includes nine games in 15 days.

Avs score at Top Prospects

Four Alaska Avalanche players are participating in the NAHL Top Prospects in Massachusetts, and three have scored points in the event designed to showcase the league’s top talent.

Forward Brandon Brossoit scored a power-play goal during Team Rafalski’s 3-1 win over Team Legwand on Sunday at the Iorio Arena in Walpole, Mass. Avs defenseman Jake Williams assisted on the Brossoit goal.

Avs forward Jake Barber — the NAHL’s leading goal-scorer — contributed an assist during Team Legwand’s 9-4 loss to Team Miller.

The Top Prospects teams are named after former NAHL players now playing in the NHL — Buffalo Sabers goalie Ryan Miller, Detroit Red Wings defenseman Brian Rafalski, Nashville Predators forward David Legwand and New York Islanders forward Doug Weight.

The showcase continues today.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/matsu_sports.