NAHL approves sale of Avs, move to Pennsylvania

PALMER — It’s official.

The Alaska Avalanche are headed to Pennsylvania.

The North American Hockey League Tier II Junior A hockey team formerly based at Palmer’s MTA Events Center has been sold and the new ownership group is moving the team to Johnstown, Pa.

Mark Lee, now the former principal owner of the franchise, confirmed the news Monday.

Earlier in the day, the NAHL Board of Governors unanimously approved the sale to Johnstown Sports Partnership LLC, Lee said.

Lee, who publicly announced his intent to sell in February, said he feels bittersweet about the sale and move of the franchise.

“I wish the Mat-Su area would have taken ahold of the team. It just didn’t work here,” Lee said. “I kept hoping if we add this, add that, maybe people would come.”

With the sale, the Johnstown group inherits 18 players eligible to play junior hockey next season. That group includes Anchorage native Gage Christianson, who set a franchise record with 53 points this past season. Christianson finished 25th in the league in scoring. Rookie forwards Evan Janssen (23-25-48) and Mitch Kontny (18-21-39) are eligible to return, in addition to both goaltenders — Nick Kulmanovsky and Bodhi Engum.

The Avs had only five players in 2011-12 playing in their final season of junior hockey. Corey Millen, head coach of the Avalanche during the 2011-12 campaign, said the new ownership group is starting with a wealth of talent.

“Right away they’ve got a nice group of guys. One of the attractive parts about buying the franchise is the 18 parts that come with it,” Millen said late last week.

The future of the coaching staff, Millen and assistant Josh Petrich, is not clear. On Monday, Lee said the new owners contacted Millen.

“They have extended an olive branch of Corey,” Lee said.

Lee said he’d certainly like to see Millen continue with the team.

“With Corey’s background and experience, and what he did for the team, it would be good,” Lee said. “The boys know him and love him.”

Late last week, Millen said he would be open to discuss a future with the team.

“I would listen to what’s being said,” Millen said.

Petrich said Monday he has not been contacted, but would also be open to the potential to stay with the team.

“I would definitely be willing to sit down and talk with them,” Petrich said.

Petrich said he knows the team will not talk about hiring assistants before naming a head coach.

The name of the team is expected to change with the move to Johnstown. The team will play its home games at the Cambria County War Memorial Arena. The 4,000-seat facility was formerly the home to a professional hockey team, the Johnstown Chiefs of the East Coast Hockey League, before that team moved to Greenville, N.C. The famous hockey movie “Slap Shot” was also filmed at the War Memorial Arena.

The franchise resided in the Valley for the last seven years, but it was originally placed in St. Louis, Mo., in 1996. The Sting played in St. Louis for five years, posting a season-high 34 wins during the 1998-99 season. In 2001, the franchise was moved to Springfield, Mo., and renamed the Springfield Spirit.

After four years in Springfield, the franchise was on the move once again, this time to the Mat-Su Valley.

The franchise was purchased and placed in Wasilla in 2005 to give the Fairbanks Ice Dogs an intrastate rival. At that time, Fairbanks was the only franchise from the 49th state in the NAHL.

The Wasilla Spirit finished 23-33-2 during the 2005-06 season, placed fourth in the NAHL West Division and advanced to the first round of the playoffs.

The following season, the team was renamed the Alaska Avalanche.

The team steadily improved on the ice during its time in the Valley. After posting 16 wins during back-to-back seasons, the Avs jumped to 23 wins the following year. In 2009-10, Alaska set a team record with 32 victories and equaled that the following year.

In 2011-12, the Avs set a new franchise record with 35 wins and were an overtime loss away from winning its first playoff series in franchise history.

But while there was improvement on the ice, the team continued to struggle financially. Lee has been involved with the franchise during the team’s entire seven-year stay in the Valley and acted as the principal owner for the bulk of that time. Lee has cited health problems and significant financial loss among his reasons to have to sell the team. He also noted declining support since the team moved from the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena in Wasilla to the MTA Events Center in Palmer prior to the 2010-11 season.

Attendance numbers dropped dramatically over the last two season.

The Avalanche drew an average of 387 fans per home game during the 2011-12 season, according to data on the league website. That number was the second lowest in the 28-team NAHL. Only Kalamazoo, with its average of 234 fans per game, drew a smaller crowd.

Only 173 fans showed up to see the final Avalanche game in the Valley, a 2-1 overtime loss to Wenatchee in Game 5 of a best-of-5 first-round playoff series on April 14.

Lee will continue to be a part of the franchise. He will hold a 15 percent stake with the new group, he said.

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