Avs put deep freeze on Ice Dogs, 6-1

Frontiersman staff

PALMER — The Mat-Su may be a long way from Kansas or Oz, but for the Alaska Avalanche, there’s no place like home.

Paced by a four-goal first period, the Avs (7-4-1) improved to 4-0 Thursday on their home ice at MTA Events Center with a 6-1 drubbing of North American Hockey League-leading Fairbanks. The loss was the first for the Ice Dogs (9-1-5) that didn’t come in overtime.

There was little doubt the Avs were ready to play, jumping on the Ice Dogs just 20 seconds into play on a goal by Evan Janssen. Teammate Gage Christianson would score the first of his game-high two goals about nine minutes later to put Alaska up 2-0.

It was a period-ending flurry of action that really blew the game wide open, when Kenvin Novakovich netted the puck with 18 seconds in the first, then Jordan Watt scored 10 seconds later to give the Avs the 4-0 advantage.

While the Avalanche offense stole the show in the first period, stellar goaltending from Bodhi Engum closed out the final two periods. The netminder stopped 31 of the 32 pucks sent his way. Despite the lopsided score, it was the Ice Dogs who finished with the advantage in shots on goal, outshooting the Avs 32-25.

The teams played even for most of the second period until Chirstianson scored his second goal of the night with 3:36 remaining to put the Avs up 5-0. The Ice Dogs tried to come back, taking the goose-egg off their side of the scoreboard with 9:05 left to play on an Eric Carlson goal.

But two minutes later, Wehebe Darge would stretch the lead again to close out the scoring.

The win moves the Avalanche into third place in the NAHL West standings with 15 points.

The Avs continue their 10-game homestead tonight and Saturday with the second and third games of their series with the Ice Dogs. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.