Rough start; Wenatchee grabs early lead in playoff series

WENATCHEE, Wash. — The Wenatchee Wild hold an early postseason advantage over the Alaska Avalanche, thanks to a 4-1 win over the Avs Thursday at the Toyota Town Center in Wenatchee, Wash.

Four different players scored to help Wenatchee take the early one-game lead in the best-of-5 North American Hockey League first-round playoff series. The series continues today at 6:05 p.m. AST in Wenatchee.

The loss also extended Alaska’s postseason losing streak. The Alaska franchise has now suffered 10 straight playoff losses. The Avs’ last postseason win came with a 4-3 overtime victory over Wenatchee in April 2009.

The Wild have also won four straight playoff games against the Avalanche. Wenatchee scored a first-round sweep of Alaska last season.

Blake Saylor, Blake Roubos, Shawn Pauly and Parker Johnson each scored for Wenatchee. Evan Janssen supplied Alaska’s lone goal.

Saylor scored 2 minutes and 22 seconds into play to give the Wild the early lead in the game. Roubas added a power-play goal late in the period.

Alaska was able to cut Wenatchee’s lead in half early in the second period. Janssen scored 34 seconds into the middle frame to make it a 2-1 game. Joe Schmitz and Kevin Novakovich assisted on the play.

Seven minutes later, Pauly pushed his team’s lead back to a pair of goals.

Wenatchee is the No. 2 seed from the NAHL West and earned home ice advantage for the first round. The Wild host Alaska tonight and again on Saturday. The Avs must win at least one of those two games to force the series back to Alaska. A fourth game, if necessary, would be played April 13 at the MTA Events Center in Palmer.

Alaska finished third in the NAHL during the regular season, posting franchise records in both wins (35) and points in the standings (76).

First-place Fairbanks meets fourth-seed Kenai River in the other NAHL West Division series. That series starts tonight in Fairbanks.

The winners of the Wenatchee-Alaska series and Fairbanks-Kenai River series meet in the second round of the playoffs.

Wenatchee 4, Alaska 1

Thursday, Toyota Town Center

First period — 1. Wenatchee- Saylor (unassisted) 2:22; 2. Wenatchee- Roubos (Redmond, Cope) pp 16:19.

Second period — 3. Alaska- Janssen (Schmitz, Novakovich) pp 0:34; 4. Wenatchee- Pauly (Kerr, Rostenkowski) pp 7:20.

Third period — 5. Wenatchee- Johnson (Rostenkowski) en 19:20.

Shots on goal: Alaska 10-7-10-27, Wenatchee 6-6-7—19; Saves: Alaska- Kulmanovsky 4-5-6—15, Alaska 10-6-10—26; Power plays: Alaska 1 for 4, Wenatchee 2 for 5.