PROGRESS REPORT

WASILLA — In many ways, the first four months of the 2009-10 campaign represented the best half of a season in the five-year history of the Alaska Avalanche junior hockey organization.

Alaska posted a 17-8-6 mark through the first 31 games of the season.

Those 17 victories are already better than the total number of wins the local Junior A club managed to collect during two of the first three seasons in Wasilla. The organization had only 16 victories in 2006-07 and 2007-08.

The Avs are seven wins away from breaking the franchise record for wins in a season. The team hit 23 wins during the first season in Wasilla, 2005-06, and reached 23 again last year.

Alaska also has 40 points in the standings, just 11 shy of the franchise record of 51 reached last season.

The Avs are on pace to shatter franchise marks for the average number of goals scored and goals allowed.

Through 31 games, Alaska is averaging 3.29 goals per game. During the first four seasons, the franchise failed to finish a season with at least three goals per game.

The Avs are also allowing a mere 2.68 goals per contest through 31 games. That’s clearly better than the record 3.22 average set in 2005-06, and a dramatic improvement of a franchise-worst total of 4.65, recorded during the 2007-08 campaign.

Alaska is also on pace to set franchise marks in power-play percentage and penalty kill percentage.

All of the above helped the Avs finally find some success against North American Hockey League West Division rivals Fairbanks and Wenatchee. After posting just a pair of wins combined against the two foes, the Avs have five wins over the Wild and Ice Dogs during the first half of the year.

Despite the first-half success, Alaska head coach Dave Boitz knows there’s a ton of hockey left to be played. And if the Avs hope to extend their season into the NAHL playoffs in April, Boitz knows the Avs will have to take their game to another level.

During the midseason break, Boitz graded the work of the Avs through the first 31 games of the year.

Offense:

Alaska has 102 goals and averaged 3.29 goals per game through the first half of the season. Five players have hit the 20-point mark, and forward Nardo Nagtzaam leads that list with 28.

The production is statistically better than years past, but Boitz sees room for improvement.

“We were a little inconsistent in that area,” Boitz said. “A lot of guys need to put up more points and score more goals.”

Nagtzaam paced the Alaska offense for much of the first half of the season. The forward recorded at least a point in 16 of his first 19 games, posting 12 goals and 13 assists during that span, but has only three points in his last eight games.

“Nardo was doing really well, but fell off a little bit,” Boitz said.

Zach Smith, who is often on the same line as Nagtzaam, also started off hot, opening the season with a nine-game point-scoring streak. He scored in 10 of his first 11 games, and 15 of his first 19 contests.

Smith is second on the squad with 24 points (14 goals, 10 assists), his exact total from last season.

Defenseman Jake Parenteau, who led NAHL defenseman in goals last season, already has a career-high 22 points (9-13-22). Forward Logan Rounds (8-11-19) is two points shy of his career best for scoring in a season.

Second-year forward Matthew Friese (7-10-17) has more than twice as many points as he scored last season.

First-year forward Berkley Scott has 21 points (11-10-21) in 31 games.

Boitz also praised the work of another first-year forward, Blake Huppert, who had 12 points (7-5-12) during the first half.

Alaska added Kenai River’s leading scorer Jed McGlasson in a trade in December to add more punch to the offense.

And Boitz said the team will also need more production from first-line forwards such as Kyle Pichler (6-17-23) and Robb Haider (6-10-16).

Pichler took a streak of five games without a goal into the break, while Haider is looking for his first goal since Halloween.

Overall, Boitz stressed consistency on the offensive end of the ice.

“We’ve kind of done it by committee,” Boitz said. “From night to night, we’re not really sure where the offense is going to come from.”

Grade: C+

Defense:

The organization’s priority during the offense was to solidify the team from the blue line back. Boitz and assistant coach Brian Huebel knew they had a solid nucleus of front-line talent coming back, but the Avs needed to be stronger in back.

The strong and steady Logan Maly and the skilled Jake Parenteau returned after spending their first season in Wasilla as one of the six regulars on defense. Daniel Hildebrandt, another defenseman the coaches have been excited about, also returned.

Alaska added young defensemen Jake Williams and Chase Van Allen to the mix, and acquired blueliners Micki Mahalovich and Kyle Van through trades with Kenai.

“The defense, I’m pretty happy with overall,” Boitz said. “It’s been really good.”

Hildebrandt missed much of the final month of the first half due to a shoulder injury, and that hurt the Avs on defense, Boitz said.

But the coaches have been thrilled with the play of the back-liners, and the emergence of defenseman such as Williams.

Parenteau (+13) and Williams (+11) lead the Avs in plus-minus rating, and are two reasons why Alaska sports a +40 rating rather than the absolutely awful -195 the Avs claimed last year.

Parenteau also leads the NAHL in goals by a defenseman, and is fourth in league in scoring by a blueliner.

Grade: B+ (Team defense B)

Goaltenders:

Boitz and Huebel went into the 2009-10 season thinking junior hockey veteran Geoff Sadjadi would be the regular starter between the pipes, and either one of team’s first-year goalies — Kale Robertson or Landon Peterson — would be kept as a reserve.

But something happened.

“They won me over,” Boitz said of Robertson and Peterson. “We couldn’t trade either one of those guys.”

Both goalies spent most of the first half of the season ranked in the league’s top-five in both goals against average and saves percentage.

Robertson finished the first half with a 9-5-2 mark, a 2.41 goals against, .918 saves percentage and one shutout.

Peterson was 6-2-4, with a 2.38 GAA, .923 saves percentage and two shutouts.

To compare, the franchise record for goals against is 3.06 and the franchise best for saves percentage is .915. Both were recorded by Andrew Volkening during the 2005-06 season.

Volkening also had the only four shutouts in franchise history, before this season.

“They’ve both been really good,” Boitz said of his two goalies.

Grade: A-

Special teams:

Alaska is on pace to set franchise marks in both special teams categories.

The Avs recorded a power-play percentage of 16.2 through the first 31 games, and their penalty kill percentage stood at 87.7.

“The penalty kill has been outstanding,” said Boitz, who noted the Avs were without arguably their best man on the penalty kill, Hildebrandt, for the last eight games of the first half. “The power play was really bad early on, but definitely heading in the right direction.”

Boitz credited Huebel, who takes the lead coaching the special teams. He also noted the work of forwards such as Seth Johnson and Andy Pearson for their work with the penalty kill units.

Grade: Penalty kill- B+; power play- B-

Overall, Boitz said finding some success in the eight straight road games that start the second half of the season is very important. The Avs also need to stay healthy. Hildebrandt, Johnson and Pearson all missed time in December.

“We just need to get back healthy and get back to the way we were playing,” Boitz said.

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