And even though Fairbanks managed to slip away with another victory on Friday, Alaska head coach Dave Boitz believes his team is closing the gap in the intrastate rivalry.
“I don’t think there’s any question,” Boitz said following his team’s 5-4 shootout loss to the Avs. “It’s going to be a good rivalry this season.”
 ROBERT DeBERRY/Frontiersman Alaska Avalanche forward Blake Huppert watches as a shot on goal is stopped by Fairbanks goalie Jake Williams Friday in Wasilla. |
“We didn’t have very good effort as a team overall,” Boitz said. “It was ok. So we’ll take the point.”
Alaska erased a 2-0 deficit with three goals within a four-minute span in the second period, and scored while skating with the extra attacker during the final minutes of regulation to force overtime.
“I thought we were a little flat, but I’m proud of the way we battled back,” Boitz said.
Fairbanks forwards Johan Skinnars and Jon Larson lifted pucks above the shoulder of Alaska goalie Landon Peterson during the tiebreaker to give Fairbanks the shootout win over the Avs.
Skating with the extra attacker, Alaska scored the game-tying goal with 1:27 left in regulation. Forward Nardo Nagtzaam, who now leads the team with 18 points, squeezed a shot from the point past Fairbanks goaltender Jake Williams to net the score at 4.
Already on the power play, Alaska took a timeout just before the score. The Avs designed a play and pulled Peterson before the face off in the Fairbanks zone.
Armed with the 6-on-4 advantage, Alaska won the draw. The designed play didn’t call for Nagtzaam, Boitz said, but the veteran forward found himself with the puck at the top of the zone.
Nagtzaam sent in a quick shot that trickled past Williams and into the net.
“We won the face off exactly the way we wanted to, but one guy broke down,” Boitz said. “One guy did the wrong thing, but it worked out for us.”
Avs forward Jacob Barber chased down a loose puck and scored his first NAHL goal at the 10:16 mark of the second period to put the Avalanche on the scoreboard.
Forward Tyler Schwartz sent a puck into the offensive zone. The pass to an odd bounce off the skate of a Fairbanks player, and Barber was able to skate in untouched to grab the short breakaway score.
Forwards Berkley Scott and Blake Huppert scored 56 seconds apart to give the Avs the 3-2 lead in the second.
Scott smacked in the rebound of a Jake Parenteau shot to net a power-play score and tie the game at 2. Kyle Pichler helped create the play. Pichler put a shot on goal, and the puck bounced out to Parenteau, who stood at the point. Parenteau’s attempt was pushed to the right side of the goal, where Scott was there to knock it back in the net.
Less than a minute later, Huppert redirected a Micki Mahailovich shot into the Fairbanks net to give the Avs the one-goal lead.
Alaska outshot Fairbanks 45-27 in the game, 18-9 in the third period and 9-0 in overtime.
“I thought our best period was the third period,” Boitz said. “I thought after we got the lead, 3-2, we kind of went in the tank there in the last seven to eight minutes of the second. I thought we had a tough time getting pucks out of our end.”
Fairbanks used a Michael Juola power-play goal with 2:35 left in the second to tie the score at 3, and Jared Larson scored on another Fairbanks power-play chance early in the third to give the Ice Dogs the 4-3 lead.
Alaska had a number of quality chances during the third period and overtime.
Nagtzaam just missed on a shorthanded shot midway through the third. Williams needed his glove to punch away a Scott shot from the point on a late third-period power-play chance.
On that same power-play, Pichler found Robb Haider open in front of the net on a 2-on-1, but the shot just missed. Huppert stretched out to take a stab at a puck lose in the crease, but his shot went just inches beyond the left post.
With 10 seconds left in the third, Nagtzaam took a shot from a hard angle, but the puck slipped through the crease and by the goal.
It was much of the same for Avs, who started overtime on the power play, during the extra period.
Parenteau, Pichler, Nagtzaam and Huppert all could have scored during overtime. Parenteau one-time a shot on goal. Pichler was free in front of the crease, but was unable to lift the puck over Williams’ stick. Nagtzaam and Huppert also had shots from just beyond the crease.
“We had two power-play chances, a ton of chances to score,” Boitz said. “Three different times we had a guy alone in front of the net. We just didn’t get the puck in.”
Haider was the lone Alaska shooter who was able to beat Williams during the shootout. Skinnars and Larson, the Dogs’ second and third shooters of the tiebreaker, each put pucks into the top shelf of the Alaska net.
Fairbanks 5, Alaska 4 SO
Friday, Menard Arena
First period — 1. Fairbanks- Juola (Feaval, Skinnars) 16:51.
Second period — 2. Fairbanks- Spratte (Krause) 6:14; 3. Alaska- Barber (Schwartz, Parenteau) 10:16; 4. Alaska- Scott (Parenteau) pp 13:54; 5. Alaska- Huppert (Mahailovich, Nagtzaam) 14:50; 6. Fairbnaks- Juola (Pustin, Politz) pp 17:25.
Third period — 7. Fairbanks- Larson (Tolkinen, Brock) pp 5:33; 8. Alaska- Nagtzaam (Rounds) pp ea 18:33.
Overtime — no scoring.
Shootout — Larson.
Shots on goal: Fairbanks 12-5-9-0-1—27, Alaska 8-10-18-9-0—45; Saves: Fairbanks- Williams 8-7-17-9-0—41, Alaska- Peterson 11-3-8-0-0—22; Power plays: Fairbanks 2-for-6, Alaska 2-for-5.
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