Avs ready for playoffs; best-of-5 first-round series starts Thursday in Washington

PALMER — In seven seasons in the Mat-Su Valley, the Alaska Avalanche have advanced to the postseason five times. This season marks the Avs’ fourth straight trip to the playoffs.

But in five postseasons, Alaska has won only three total games and has never made it out of the first round. The Avs were swept out of the playoffs in each of the last two seasons and have not won a playoff game since April 3, 2009.

Alaska’s postseason body of work is far from spectacular, but Avs assistant coach Josh Petrich said the past is simply the past. This is a new edition of the Avalanche, a group eager to erase those past memories.

“Being swept probably hurt some of the guys on the team, but that’s the past in the organization. That isn’t this team,” Petrich said.

Now it’s up to the current crop of Avalanche players to do what no other Alaska Avs team has done, secure a first-round playoff series win.

Alaska, the North American Hockey League’s No. 3 seed, opens its first-round series Thursday against second-seeded Wenatchee at the Toyota Town Center in Wenatchee, Wash., at 5:35 p.m. AST.

The best-of-5 series continues Friday and Saturday at 7:05 p.m. AST.

Alaska will need at least one win in Wenatchee this weekend to force the series back to Alaska. A fourth game, if necessarily, would be slated for April 13 in Palmer.

Alaska enters the playoffs on the heels of playing seven games in 10 days. The Avs were 3-2-2 during the stretch and have suffered three straight losses. Kenai River needed overtime and a shootout to sweep Alaska during a two-game set last weekend at the MTA Events Center in Palmer.

The Brown Bears took advantage of Avalanche mistakes and capitalized on a number of key opportunities.

“I think every mistake we made they put in the back of our net,” Petrich said.

Petrich said that will need to change this weekend.

“We’ve got to be disciplined,” Petrich said.

Wenatchee is among the top teams in the league in the special teams categories. The Wild sport a league-high 89.41 penalty kill percentage and are third in the league in power-play percentage at 19.93 percent.

“We need to play 5 on 5 hockey,” Petrich said. “We need to do the little things right.”

Statistically, the teams are somewhat even. Alaska is averaging 3.2 goals per game, compared to Wenatchee’s 2.75. Alaska has one player with more than 50 points and four with more than 40. The Wild have two players with 50 or more points and three with 40 or more.

“Neither team has one guy who is going to decide the series,” Petrich said.

There’s a larger difference in the goaltending statistics. Wenatchee goalies Robert Nichols and Greg Lewis have combined to post a 1.70 goals against average and .929 saves percentage.

Nichols recently set a league regular season record with a 1.49 GAA.

Alaska goalies Nick Kulmanovsky and Bodhi Engum have combined for a 2.88 goals against average and .893 saves percentage.

Kulmanovsky leads the team with a 2.61 GAA and .906 saves percentage.

Forward Gage Christianson leads the Avs in scoring with a team-record 53 points. The Anchorage native has 16 goals and 37 assists, and sports a plus-8 rating.

Evan Janssen is second on the team with 23-25-48 totals and Kevin Novakovich tallied 16-27-43 totals while playing in all 60 regular-season games.

Alaska was 2-5-1 in eight regular-season games against the Wild. Three games in the series were decided by only one goal and two more were decided by two goals.

Captain Joe Schmitz leads the Avs with 1-5-6 totals against the Wild. Janssen has scored a team-high three goals against Wenatchee.

Fairbanks and Kenai River will face off in the other NAHL West Division first-round series. Fairbanks is the top seed from the West and the defending Robertson Cup champion.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.