Avs ready for Wild

WENATCHEE, Wash. — The 2011-12 edition of the Alaska Avalanche had their first taste of action. But after four games during the North American Hockey League Showcase last week, the Avs are ready to jump into divisional play. Tonight, the Avs drop the puck for the first of 56 straight games against NAHL West Division opponents.

Alaska opens a two-game series with the Wenatchee Wild tonight at 6:05 p.m. AST in Wenatchee, Wash.

Alaska finished 1-2-1 during the four-day Showcase. But despite the single victory in the four attempts, the first-year Avs coaching staff is feeling pretty good about things.

“We’d like to get more W’s, but we can take a lot of positives out of it,” Alaska assistant coach Josh Petrich said after the Showcase. “For a lot of these kids, it’s their first four games in the league.”

Tonight’s match will pair two of the younger teams in the NAHL West. The Avs return only seven players who finished the season with the team last year — forwards Brandon Brossoit, Evan Hesse, Ross Pavek, Wehebe Darge and Cody Bisbing; defenseman Joe Schmitz; and goalie Nick Kulmanovsky. Two others — defenseman Casey Nelson and goalie Blake Mendenhall — played part of the season with the Avs last year.

The Avs have only five players on the roster in their final year of junior hockey eligibility and 10 who are skating in their first season of juniors.

Those numbers are fairly similar to Wenatchee, an NAHL power in recent seasons. This year, the Wild have only two plays — defenseman Kyle Huson and goalie Greg Lewis — in their final years of juniors. Wenatchee also has nine 18-year-olds and three 17-year-olds on the squad.

The Avs are seeing production out of its young talent. First-year forward Evan Janssen leads the team in scoring with five goals and one assist. Janssen’s linemates, Ryan Dau (0-5-5) and Cobi Smith-Mass (1-2-3), are also among team leaders.

Nelson leads blueliners with three assists.

Forward Jared Tafoya leads the Wild with three goals and four points. Forwards Ben Carey (1-3-4) and Trace Redmond (0-4-4) also had a team-high four points.

A pair of Alaska’s most significant offseason additions was acquired in trades with Wenatchee. Alaska landed defenseman Patrick Kinkopf and forward Gage Christianson in separate deals with the Wild.

Kinkopf was a stable defenseman last year for the Wild, recording 1-2-3 totals and a plus-4 rating in 27 games. Christianson, a native of Anchorage, had an assist in seven games.

Alaska and Wenatchee met in the first round of the 2010-11 playoffs, with the Wild scoring the three-game sweep.

Alaska returns to the 49th state next week to face the Kenai River Brown Bears at the Soldotna Sports Center on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.

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