Season finale

WASILLA — As the Alaska Avalanche and Fairbanks Ice Dogs skate into the final two games of the regular season, the intrastate rivals are in two very different positions.

The Avs, who have been eliminated from postseason play, are hoping to end the 2007-08 season on a positive note, while the Ice Dogs are looking to secure home ice advantage for the first round of the North American Hockey League playoffs.

For the Avalanche, nothing could be more positive for the third-year franchise than using the final weekend of the regular season to destroy the plans of their neighbors to the north.

Alaska will try to do just that when the Avs face the Ice Dogs at the Big Dipper Ice Arena in Fairbanks tonight and Saturday.

Fairbanks is currently one of three teams separated by just four points in the NAHL’s South Division.

Topeka, a team that’s won seven of its last eight, leads the division with 82 points. Wichita Falls and Fairbanks are tied for second with 78.

The Avs wouldn’t mind seeing the Ice Dogs stay at 78 points.

“[We want to] try not to let them get second place,” Alaska assistant captain Teddy Zierden said on Thursday after the Avs’ practice at the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena. “Make them fly out instead of having home ice.”

The best the Ice Dogs can finish is second. Even if Topeka beats both Texas and Wichita Falls this weekend and the Ice Dogs sweep the Avs, Fairbanks and Topeka would each have 82 points. Topeka is 3-1-0 against Fairbanks this season and has the tiebreaker.

Wichita Falls also owns the tiebreaker against the Ice Dogs, but the Wildcats only have the game against Topeka left on the regular season schedule.

An Alaska win on Friday or Saturday and a Wichita Falls win on Saturday would leave Fairbanks in third place, giving the Wildcats home ice.

“They’ve got a ton on the line,” Alaska head coach and general manager Jamie Smith said.

The Avs, who have had the last 13 days off, traveled to Fairbanks earlier this month for a two-game series.

Fairbanks needed overtime to edge Alaska 2-1 on the first night, but walloped the Avs 8-1 the following night.

While the numbers on the scoreboard may have been drastically different, those on the shot chart were remarkably similar.

The Ice Dogs outshot the Avs 57-24 the first night and 62-26 the next.

“It’s a shooting range,” Smith said. “Any time they get the puck, they just start firing.”

Smith estimates that Fairbanks got about 60 percent of its shots from the point. The Ice Dogs are known to let their defensemen blast away at the net, while sending their wings crashing to the goal, hunting for rebounds.

First-year NAHL goalie Nathan Corey stood out in overtime loss, stopping a career-high 55 shots.

Dusan Sidor stopped 55 of the 62 shots he faced the following night.

Random shots … The Avs have a franchise-record five players with 30 or more points this season … First-year forward Jeremiah Dargis is two points shy of tying the single season franchise record for points in a season … First-year forward Kyle Pichler can break the single season franchise record for goals with one more score … Captain Alex Young can tie the single season franchise record for assists with three helpers this weekend … A few franchise records have already been set. Young now holds the record for power-play goals with nine. Dargis holds the mark for power-play assists, with 13. Forward Tyler Currier has a franchise-record five game-winning goals this season. The 2007-08 edition of the Avs have also set a franchise record for power-play percentage, with 13.45.

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