Division leaders skate into Valley

PALMER — With four games against the top two teams of the North American Hockey League West Division during the next five days, the Alaska Avalanche could look at this as the most important week of the 2010-11 season.

But considering how the division is shaping up — with only eight points separating the six teams in the West — this looks to be just another important week in a brutal division.

Alaska opens the stretch with the start of a two-game series against the Wenatchee Wild tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Palmer Ice Arena. Later in the week, the Avs host the Fairbanks Ice Dogs.

“There are no off nights,” Alaska head coach Brian Huebel said on Monday. “Everyone can beat everyone.”

Wenatchee and Fairbanks head into the week locked in a first-place tie with 26 points. Kenai River jumped into third place with 24 points, and fourth-place Fresno (23) and fifth-place Alaska (22) sit close behind.

“It shows the parity in our division,” Huebel said. “Everyone seems to be splitting (series’) all over the place.”

With all of their remaining games against West Division opponents, Huebel said the Avs can’t become fixated on any one stretch of the season. He said the Avs simply need to know each night is important, especially since none of the division’s six teams have found a way to break away from the rest.

“If a team can figure out how to put it together for eight or 10 or 12 games, they might have a shot at creating some room, a buffer,” Huebel said. “So far that hasn’t happened.”

Home ice advantage hasn’t been a tremendous factor either. Three of the division’s top five teams are playing .500 hockey in their home barn. Fairbanks is 1-3 in its last four home games. Wenatchee is 1-2 in its last three at home.

Two weeks ago, Kenai River swept Alaska on its home ice. Last weekend, the Avs skated away with a pair of wins during a three-game set against Kenai on the Kenai Peninsula.

Alaska used five third-period goals during a 6-3 win over the Bears last Thursday to snap a three-game losing streak.

Three of those scores came on the power play.

“Thursday was a big one,” Huebel said. “We took advantage of our opportunities on the power play.”

Jake Barber scored twice with the advantage and Brandon Brossoit added a power-play goal for the Avs.

“The biggest thing is we moved the puck quickly, made quick decisions,” Huebel said.

Alaska followed with a 4-3 victory on Friday, using a late Tyler Briola goal to grab the win. The Avs trailed 3-2 in that game.

“Two wins, two come-from-behind wins. We’d still like to have a third — but two wins on the road, we can live with that,” Huebel said.

The Bears blanked Alaska 5-0 on Saturday, getting four of their goals in the second. But Huebel said positives can be taken away from that loss.

“I felt like we came out and were competitive in the third,” Huebel said.

The Avs outshot Kenai 16-3 in the period.

“We learned a little more about ourselves,” Huebel said. “We took some steps in the right direction, even if we weren’t able to get the win on Saturday.”

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com. Follow him at Twitter at twitter.com/matsu_sports.