Playoff pucks

WASILLA — History will be made tonight at the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena.

When the Alaska Avalanche drop the puck against the Fairbanks Ice Dogs it will mark the first time the Wasilla-based Junior A hockey franchise will start the North American Hockey League postseason on its own sheet of ice.

But the Avs aren’t content with just one piece of history. Tonight, the Avs will try to take their first step toward winning their first playoff series in franchise history when the best-of-5 first-round series starts at 7:35 p.m. at the Menard.

“The guys are excited to have home ice, but they know there are bigger things at stake,” Alaska head coach Dave Boitz said earlier this week.

Alaska will host Fairbanks tonight and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Menard. The third game of the set is scheduled for April 9 at the Big Dipper Ice Arena in Fairbanks. The teams could meet April 10 in Fairbanks if necessary. The Avs would host a fifth game, if needed, on April 10.

The Avs jumped Fairbanks in the standings with a pair of lopsided wins over Kenai River during the final weekend of the regular season. With the victories, Alaska finished second in the NAHL West with a 32-19-7 record and 71 points. Fairbanks dropped to third place with a pair of weekend losses to the Wenatchee Wild, and finished the regular season 32-22-4 with 68 points.

Alaska earned home ice for the first time in franchise history, but tonight will also mark the Avs’ first playoff game at the Menard. Alaska has advanced to the postseason twice before, but in each of those seasons, the Avs were left without a true playoff game. In the team’s inaugural year, the season the squad was known as the Wasilla Spirit, the team played Fairbanks in the playoffs. But due to a scheduling conflict with the city of Wasilla and the Menard Arena, the Spirit played their two “home” games at the Subway Center in Anchorage.

Alaska also advanced last season and played Wenatchee in the first-round. Prior to the 2008-09 postseason, league officials ruled that if the Washington state-based team earned home ice against one of the three Alaska teams, the Wild would host every game in the series to cut down on travel costs.

To advance to the second round, Alaska will have to get by a Fairbanks squad the Avs finished 5-7-2 against during 14 regular season meetings. In many statistical categories, the West rivals are very close. Both teams finished with 32 wins. Alaska averaged 3.43 goals per game, while Fairbanks finished the season at 3.5. The Avs allowed 3.06 goals per game, slightly better than the Ice Dogs’ 3.14. Both teams’ penalty kill percentage stands at 82 percent.

The big difference is the power play. Fairbanks is hitting on 21.7 percent of its chances with the man-advantage, while Alaska is at about 15 percent.

Boitz said the key to stopping Fairbanks and its potent offense could be disciplined play.

“We’ve got to stay out of the box,” Boitz said.

The Ice Dogs’ top six scorers have posted at least 41 percent of their points on the power play this season. Forward Michael Juola, who finished second in the league with 77 points, finished with 10-27-37 totals on the power play. Forty-eight percent of Juola’s points came with the advantage.

Jared Larson, Fairbanks’ third-leading scorer, tallied 46 percent of his 46 points on the power play.

Alaska finished with four players with 40 points or more. Forward Zach Smith finished with three goals and two assists during the final weekend to end the regular season with a team-high 48 points (30-18-48). Defenseman Jake Parenteau, who led all NAHL blueliners in goals and points, posted 16-31-47 totals in 55 games.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.