Ice Dogs, Avalanche leapfrog in battle for NAHL West lead

PALMER — Getting the puck to the net wasn’t a problem for the Alaska Avalanche Friday. Getting the puck in the net against North American Hockey League West Division rival Fairbanks Ice Dogs was another challenge altogether.

Although the Avalanche out-shot Fairbanks 45-26 in the game — including an 18-6 flurry in the third period — it wasn’t enough to power Alaska past the Ice Dogs in a 6-5 home loss at MTA Palmer Ice Arena. The loss allowed the Ice Dogs to leapfrog the Avalanche and land in first place in the NAHL West ahead of the Avs.

What may hurt the team more than the discrepancy in shots and sometimes sloppy defense that allowed several easy Ice Dogs chances could be the loss of forward Blake Huppert, who left the game in the second period with a dislocated right shoulder and didn’t return to the ice.

“It’s tough,” said Avalanche head coach Brian Huebel of Huppert’s injury. “He’s been solid for us every game. It’s tough to see him go down, but that’s part of (his game). He competes so hard. It’s unfortunate, but we’ll find out what’s going on with (the injury).”

At a time when the Avalanche are neck-and-neck with Fairbanks for the division lead — Fairbanks has 50 points to Alaska’s 49 — Huppert’s loss could be significant. He’s part of the Avs’ top line and his 34 points are second on the team behind forward Jacob Barber (39).

Huebel said after Friday’s game he wasn’t sure how he would redraw his lines, he told the team to use the situation to improve.

“I told the guys after the second period that, hey, the bottom line is it’s a shot for someone to step up,” he said.

While the Avs found themselves on the wrong end of a 6-5 score, the game began with fast, crisp play from the home team. Alaska took advantage of an early power play, lighting the lamp first 1:58 into the game when Barber skated around the back of the Ice Dog net and backhanded the puck into the left corner.

Less than five minutes later, Fairbanks would answer when Alec Hajdukovich capitalized on the first of several neutral zone turnovers by the Avalanche. He skated in fast from the left of goalie Landon Peterson and snapped a wrister into the top right of the net. It was the first of four first-period goals Peterson would allow, prompting Huebel to put Blake Mendenhall into the net for the rest of the game.

The Avalanche would take the lead back at the 11:03 mark of the first when Huppert put a rebound past Fairbanks goalie Steve Perry, assisted by Jake Williams and Matt Friese.

It took the Ice Dogs 50 seconds to tie the score again on a power-play shot from the left above the crease by Hajdukovich. It was the beginning of a period-ending three-goal flurry for Fairbanks that would end with JT Osborn scoring the first goal of an eventual hat trick to put the Dogs up 4-2 going into the second period.

In a game that saw a lot of offense and not much defense, Huebel said the Avs need to be more consistent and not make costly mistakes.

“The mistakes that were made out there tonight, both teams capitalized on them,” he said. “No (defense) at all; 11 goals in a hockey game is not what coaches are looking for. I know the fans love it, but not us.”

While he was pleased with some of his team’s play, “as far as 60 minutes go, we didn’t play consistent,” Huebel said. “We weren’t nearly as physical as we need to be to play consistently. We had some bad neutral zone turnovers that led to goals, we had some let-downs on coverage that led to goals. In games like this, it was almost like a playoff as far as how much our mistakes were magnified.”

Both teams would settle down some in the second period, with Alaska cutting the Ice Dog lead to 4-3 3:10 into the period when Zach Smith, last week’s NAHL Player of the Week, scored on the power play.

But Fairbanks would close the door early in the third period when Osborn scored his second goal 1:31 in, then completed his hat trick at the 8:10 mark to put the Ice Dogs up 6-3.

Friese would lead a frantic Avalanche push near the end of regulation backed by an empty net, scoring twice in the final 3:18 of the game to narrow the margin to 6-5.

In 16 games since returning to the Avalanche, Friese has 26 points and is +13.

“The guys never gave up, I give them credit for that,” Huebel said. “We did some good things out there tonight, we scored five goals. We need to play to our identity — fast, gritty, hard-nosed kind-of hockey. We’re not going to blow you away with big checks or anything, but we’ve got to be playing the body and using our speed. We just didn’t do that tonight and we were sloppy when we did have the puck.”

Alaska 5, Fairbanks 2

The Avalanche spent all of 24 hours in second place in the NAHL West, rebounding from a physical 6-5 loss to the Ice Dogs on Friday with a dominting 5-2 win Saturday. The win gives the Avs 51 points on the seaon, just ahead of Fairbanks at 50.

After the teams skated to a fast start on offense and tied 2-2 after the first period, that defensive consistency Huebel said was missing on Friday kicked in for Alaska’s defense. The Avs clamped down to hold the Ice Dogs scoreless for the rest of the game, including holding Fairbanks to no shots in the third period.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.

Fairbanks 6, Alaska 5

Friday, MTA Palmer Ice Arena

First period — 1. Alaska- J. Barber (C. Wright, C. Van Allen) pp 1:58; 2. Fairbanks- A. Hajdukovich (J. Linnell) 6:37; 3. Alaska- B. Huppert (J. Williams, M. Friese) pp 11:03; 4. Fairbanks- Hajdukovich (unassisted) pp 11:53; 5. Fairbanks- J. Linnell (G. Levin, T. Munson) pp 13:14; 6. Fairbanks- JT Osborn (A. Jensen, G. Levin) 14:02.

Second period — 7. Alaska- Z. Smith (J. Williams, B. Tryggeseth) pp 3:10.

Third period — 8. Fairbanks- JT Osborn (G. Levin) 1:31; 9. JT Osborn (G. Levin) 8:10; 10. Alaska- M. Friese (D. Whitehill, G. Dye) 16:42; 11. Alaska- M. Friese (D. Whitehill, J. Barber) 19:52.

Shots on goal: Fairbanks 10-10-6—26, Alaska 17-10-18—45; Saves: Fairbanks- S. Perry 40, Alaska- L. Peterson 6, B. Mendenhall 14; Power plays: Fairbanks- 2-for-5, Alaska- 3-for-5.

Alaska 5, Fairbanks 2

Saturday, MTA Palmer Ice Arena

First period — 1. Alaska- A. Pearson (Z. Smith) 1:16; 2. Alaska- W. Darge (A. Pearson) pp 3:42; 3. Fairbanks- J. Linnell (A. Hajdukovich) 5:12; 4. Fairbanks- JT Osborn (T. Voigt, S. O’Rourke) pp 18:02.

Second period — 5. Alaska- E. Hesse (unassisted) 5:09.

Third period — 6. J. Schmitz (Z. Smith) 1:17; 7. C. Wright (B. Tryggeseth, G. Dye) pp 8:27.

Shots on goal: Fairbanks 12-13-0—25, Alaska 15-9-2—26; Saves: Fairbanks- J. Phillippi 21, Alaska- L. Peterson 23; Power plays: Fairbanks- 1-for-7, Alaska- 2-for-7.