Local sled hockey team wins national title

WASILLA — It’s been about two years since the Alaska Avalanche sled hockey team skated in an official game in their home state. Since hosting a team from Buffalo, New York, in 2014, it’s been weekly practices and intrasquad scrimmages for Alaska’s lone official team in a sport that allows athletes with disabilities the opportunity to compete in an adapted version of hockey.

But earlier this month, the Valley-based team got their chance to compete in the 12^th annual USA Hockey Disabled Hockey Festival in Fraser, Michigan.

The Avalanche took advantage of their opportunity. The team finished undefeated in the American C class, and won a 2016 national title.

The championship victory capped a whirlwind four-day festival for the Avalanche, and followed years of uncertainty whether the team would have the chance to travel to a national event.

“It’s been a season by season kind of thing. We always wanted to go to the tournament,” said Jeff Dick, the team’s coach and a therapeutic recreation coordinator at Challenge Alaska.

It has all come down to having the funds to send the 11-player team to a tournament. The team, originally formed in 2003, has called the Menard Sports Center in Wasilla home since 2007, when the sled hockey team took the name of the Valley’s former Junior A hockey organization, which was a big proponent of the adapted game.

Since then, the team has maintained a steady core of veterans in a sport that takes many concepts of the standard game of ice hockey, but incorporates different equipment to give disabled athletes equal opportunity to play hockey. The Avs play and practice on sleds, normally made of aluminum or steel and sized according to a player’s height, which features a bucket seat and safety straps. Underneath the sleds are two blades mounted parallel, and a runner up front. Players use two shortened hockey sticks with a metal pick on one end and a blade of the stick on the other. The sticks are used to both shoot and pass the puck, and to help the players move across the ice.

Just like standard hockey, players wear helmets and a full set of protective pads.

During their season, the Avs practice once a week at the Menard.

As the only sled hockey team in Alaska, week in, week out, the Avs faced only their familiar faces on the ice. But while that may prove frustrating for some, Dick said the team saw the positive and used that to its advantage.

“We figured out a way to make it work,” Dick said.

And that helped the Avs during the tournament.

“When we got to the point where it wasn’t us against us, the team came together as a unit,” Dick said. “We were able to use all the knowledge we had, and really supported each other.”

Dick called the victory, “a total team effort,” by a squad that features 10 men and one woman. Most of the players live in the Valley.

The 2015-16 team includes: captain Gerry Milbrett, a wing from Palmer; assistant captain Gregory Peck, a defenseman from Wasilla; center Jesse Milbrett (Wasilla); wing Valerie Erdman (Wasilla); defenseman Jim Montgomery (Wasilla); center Israel Hale (Palmer); wing Will Barrington (Anchorage); wing James Newton (Anchorage); defenseman Chris Milbrett (Palmer); defenseman Blake Bowkers (Wasilla); and goalie Nathan Carey (Anchorage).

Israel Hale has been playing with the team for two seasons. The 29-year-old said that heading into the tournament, the team didn’t know exactly what to expect.

“We didn’t expect to bring home a championship,” Hale said “We knew we had a good team.”

The Avs proved they’re really good. Alaska finished 5-0 overall and beat the Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association squad 2-0 in the American C final. Hale scored both goals in the final, and goalie Nathan Carey recorded his fourth shutout of the tournament in the win. Carey allowed only one goal in five games.

“It was really amazing,” Hale said. “All the hard work paid off.”

Hale said the experience was meaningful on a variety of levels.

“It means a whole lot. It also means we might be able to get sponsors easier the next time we want to do this again,” Hale said.

Dick said the team already has its sights set on the 2017 USA Hockey disabled festival, hosted in San Jose, California. The West Coast location should help reduce the overall costs, Dick said.

“Our goal is to get back to the tournament next year,” Dick said.

Dick said contributions by Labatt Blue Alaska, K&L Distributors, North American Breweries, USA Hockey Pacific District and Challenge Alaska helped make the team’s trip to Michigan possible. Dick said the Alaska State Hockey Association also stepped up to provide a large chunk of funding, and played a big role in the team’s opportunity to compete.

Dick described the experience as surreal. The team didn’t have much time to celebrate at the Fraser Hockeyland Ice Arena. The Avs rushed from the rink to the airport soon after the game to catch their flight back to Alaska.

But once they were settled, they had a chance to really think about what had just happened, Dick said.

“The whole plane ride home from Detroit, we sat down and it really sank in,” Dick said. “The smiles got bigger and bigger all the way back to Alaska.”

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