NOT SO FAST

PALMER — With only a handful of games left in the North American Hockey League regular season, Alaska head coach Brian Huebel knows the Avs are not going to get any faster during the final stretch of the regular season. They’re not going to get any bigger. A player’s skill set typically is not going to change.

Huebel knows it’s a mental game now, and attitude can mean everything. With that said, Huebel liked what he saw during Alaska’s two-game sweep of the Wenatchee Wild.

The Avs posted a pair of first-period scores, goalie Nick Kulmanovsky made 28 saves and the Avs were able to grind out a 3-1 victory over the Wenatchee Wild at the MTA Palmer Ice Arena on Friday.

“They energy was pretty good, but the bigger thing, they were more of a positive group,” Huebel said Friday of the Avs, who snapped a three-game losing skid with the win. “We were upbeat.”

After losing three straight, Huebel said it wasn’t time to reinvent the wheel.

“Messages were sent this week about becoming more of a team, doing it for each other and not for yourself,” Huebel said. “They definitely caught on. I’m happy to see that.”

On Saturday, the Avs scored twice in the final 62 seconds to complete the sweep with a 4-3 win over the Wild.

Blake Huppert scored on the power play with 1:02 left in regulation to tie the game at 4, and Matt Friese posted the game-winner with only 18 seconds left. The scores helped the Avs move into sole possession of second-place of the NAHL West Division standings with a 29-21-3 mark and 61 points.

The goals were crucial for the Avs, and also also big for Huppert and Friese, two-thirds of a top line that struggled early in the game, the coach said.

“That line wasn’t playing very well at all. It gets back to the top players needing to be top players,” Huebel said Saturday. “But they decided to pick it up a little bit.”

With the Avs skating with the advantage, defenseman Dan Senkbeil put a puck on net. Wenatchee goalie Greg Lewis left the rebound loose, and Huppert was there to knock in the game-tying score.

“Lewis had been giving up rebounds all game and (Blake) was at the right spot to bang it home,” Huebel said.

Less than a minute later, Friese supplied the game-winner.

Zach Smith and Joe Schmitz tallied second-period scores to help the Avs rebound from an early 2-0 deficit.

On Friday, Smith and Andy Pearson each scored during the final eight minutes of the first frame to help Alaska earn the win and pull into a second-place tie with Wenatchee, with 59 total points in the NAHL West standings. Both goals were the type of scores Alaska had been lacking during its losing streak.

With the Avs skating on the power play, Smith split the circles and the Wild defense and followed in the rebound of his own shot to give Alaska the 1-0 lead. The Avs earned another gritty goal at the tail end of the first. Eliot Grauer walked the puck in and sent a quick shot on the Wenatchee net. With the rebound loose, Pearson crashed and scored.

“That’s something we’ve stressed the last two days of practice, getting pucks and bodies to the net,” Huebel said. “This time of year, you’ve got to do that, get bodies and pucks to the net more often.”

Schmitz added to the lead with four minutes left in the second, sending a shot from the right point into the far side of the net.

Wenatchee’s lone goal came earlier in the period when DJ Vandercook beat Kulmanovsky five-hole.

After the game, the Avs knew Kulmanovsky — a Fairbanks native who was acquired in a trade with Wenatchee last month — could have very easily left the ice with the shutout.

“He was really good,” Huebel said.

Arguably his save — or saves — of the game came midway through the second, minutes after Vandercook cut Alaska’s lead in half. Following a Wild rush, Wenatchee punched consecutive shots on goal, forcing Kulmanovsky to make one save tight along the left post and quickly stench across the crease to make the next stop.

“That was a big-time save,” Huebel said. “That kept the momentum in our favor.”

Alaska now has just one more home series left on the regular-season schedule. The Avs host Fresno in a two-game set that starts Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the MTA Palmer Ice Arena. The series also marks military appreciation. The team will auction military-themed jerseys worn by the players.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/matsu_sports.

Alaska 4, Wenatchee 3

Saturday, Palmer Ice Arena

First period — 1. Wenatchee- Barber (Carey, Von Ruedon) 13:04.

Second permiod — 2. Wenatchee- Vandercook (Berzins, Sjogren) 6:58; 3. Alaska- Schmitz (Bisbing, Wright) 4:22; 4. Alaska- Smith (Huppert, Senkbeil) pp 18:20.

Third period — 5. Wenatchee- Lewis (unassisted) pp 9:16; 6. Alaska- Huppert (Senkbeil, Williiams) 18:58; 7. Alaska- Friese (Pearson, Williams) 19:42.

Alaska 3, Wenatchee 1

Friday, MTA Palmer Ice Arena

First period — 1. Alaska- Smith (Friese, Williams) pp 12:50; 2. Alaska- Pearson (Grauer, Smith) 18:59.

Second period — 3. Wenatchee- Vandercook (Sjogren, Von Rueden) 5:09; 4. Alaska- Schmitz (Darge) 16:00.

Shots on goal: Wenatchee 16-7-6—29, Alaska 12-12-5—29; Saves: Wenatchee- Jaeger 10-11-5—26, Alaska- Kulmanovsky 16-6-6—28; Power plays: Wenatchee 0-4 Alaska 0-6.