FIGHT FOR HOME ICE

PALMER — The Alaska Avalanche are down to their final home series of the regular season. But a couple of wins this weekend could be critical in the Avs’ pursuit to host a few more games this year.

The Avs — locked in a tight race for home ice advantage during the first round of the North American Hockey League playoffs — host the Fresno Monsters tonight and Saturday at the MTA Palmer Ice Arena.

“These are the two biggest hockey games of the year,” Alaska head coach Brian Huebel said on Thursday. “Bottom line, we need another big weekend of hockey.”

The Avs enjoyed arguably their best weekend of hockey in over a month last week, sweeping the Wenatchee Wild in a two-game set. The wins pushed the Avs to 29-21-3 overall, and with 61 total points, Alaska currently sits in a second-place tie with the Wild. The top two teams in the NAHL West will host the first round of the playoffs. First-place Fairbanks (37-12-2) locked up the division title with a win over Fresno on Wednesday.

The wins also combined to mark Alaska’s first series sweep of an opponent since the Avs won each contest during a three-game sweep of Dawson Creek in December. While the Avs have put together nice wins throughout the season, Huebel and assistant Sean Fish have been busy preaching consistency.

“Like a lot of other junior hockey teams, we’ve been inconsistent at times,” Huebel said. “We’re going to expect a good weekend of hockey, and we’ll see how everything plays out.”

Alaska hosts a Fresno squad that has dropped seven straight games and slipped to 17-30-5, which leaves the Monsters in the bottom spot of the six-team NAHL West. The Avs are 4-1 against the Monsters this year and haven’t faced Fresno since a three-game series in California in November.

The Monsters don’t sport an impressive record, but Huebel knows Fresno is another group of players fighting for their junior futures. Fresno would also love to be the spoiler, Huebel said.

“We know records don’t mean anything. These kids are playing for everything, too,” Huebel said. “They’ve got some good players and they’re going to compete. They can also be spoilers, shake things up.”

Forward Willie Hess leads the Monsters with 20 goals and 10 assists. North Pole native DJ Carnley has 11-6-17 totals in 46 games.

The Avs are in the race with the Wild for home ice, but can’t forget about Kenai River. The Brown Bears, who have earned points in the standings in five straight games, have improved to 26-21-6. With 58 total points, the fourth-place Bears sit three points shy of Alaska in the standings.

The Brown Bears clinched their playoff spot by gaining a point in the standings with a 3-2 overtime loss to Wenatchee on Tuesday.

Veterans Blake Huppert and Matt Friese each scored during the last 62 seconds of play to help Alaska grab a 4-3 win over the Wild last Saturday.

Huppert scored the game-tying power-play goal with 1:02 left, and Friese supplied the game-winner — his seventh game-winning goal in his 27 games with the Avs — with 18 seconds to go.

Alaska beat Wenatchee 3-1 last Friday.

Newcomer Nick Kulmanovsky earned both wins in the Avalanche net. The Fairbanks native who was acquired in a deal with Wenatchee before the trade deadline made 28 stops on Friday and 36 more the following night. With the emergence of the 17-year-old Kulmanovsky (2.86 goals against average, .906 saves percentage) and the steady presence of Landon Peterson (21-11-3, 2.76 GAA, .913 saves percentage), Huebel said the Avs are feeling good about their goaltenders.

“I like our tandem,” Huebel said.

Defenseman Jake Williams tallied three assists over the weekend and now leads the club in scoring with 5-36-41 totals. Forwards Zach Smith (19-21-40) and Andy Pearson (15-25-40) each have 40 points.