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| 10/29/2009 12:41:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Most people in Minocqua know Seth Johnson as someone who doesn’t back down from a challenge. Here, the 5-9 Lakeland grad tangles with 6-4 Andrew Christ of the Wenatchee Wild during a recent match. According to Johnson’s coach Boitz, sights like this are all-too common in the NAHL which is one of the most competitive junior leagues in the world. |
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Johnson begins lighting the lamp for Alaska Avalanche
Lakeland High grad has begun his NAHL career by turning some heads
Ask anyone where Wasilla, Alaska, is and you'll probably get the same look Seth Johnson had on his face when he first heard that's where he was going to continue his days of playing hockey.
Population 7,028, Wasilla lays just a short drive north from Anchorage via Interstate 1.
The city once had a mayor by the name of Sarah Palin, is home to Alaska's most famous sporting event, the Iditarod sled dog race, has a charter school of the University of Alaska, but is also a home for the North American Hockey League team known as the Alaska Avalanche.
Last year, Johnson graced the ice at the Lakeland Hawks Ice Arena with his speed, puck handling and amazing ability to score.
While the high school season gets set to begin in a couple of weeks, Johnson and his squad are already a month into theirs as the Avalanche are out to their best start in the franchises history - heading into last Friday's match-up with the Kenai River Brown Bears sitting at second place in the Western Conference at 9-3-2.
"The team really is off to one of its best starts in the franchise history and I'm pretty happy with where we're at," head coach Dave Boitz said of his team last week.
In speaking about his newly-gained forward Johnson, Boitz was very forward with his comments - saying he's waiting to see just where the talent will lead his first year player from Minocqua.
"Seth's doing really, really well in playing a lot of regular shifts for us and even some special teams here and there," Boitz said. "He's a spark plug and just a tough kid. Last week he fought with arguably the biggest player in our conference and wasn't backing down. It's been a real pleasure so far to have him as a part of our team."
Expectations not only for his team, but also for Johnson personally are being set high by Boitz, though the Avalanche play in quite arguably the best of the four NAHL divisions.
"Traditionally you see a lot of the stronger teams from this western division and this year it is really good," Boitz said. "Our aspirations are to be right up there with them and we're doing that right now which is good to see out of a young team."
Boitz admits that many young players coming in, like Johnson, are still in much of a developmental stage which still expects production. None of that is any different for the Minocqua native who has shown early on that there is one thing he can do and that's score.
"For Seth, what we expect him to do is to keep getting better and developing," Boitz said. "We think a lot of him and he's shown that if not this year, most definitely next year he's got the ability to be one of the top scorers in the league."
Through 15 games played this season, Johnson has registered three goals scored while assisting on two others. It may not seem like a lot for one of Lakeland's all-time leading point scorers, but for Boitz, he understands that the change of environment takes some time to adapt to.
"It's a big change from high school hockey because a lot of these guys are used to being the top dogs," he said. "Seth is no different than any other first-year guy coming in and I think he's learning that at this level, you have to compete every day.
"Any given day, a team can beat another which makes every night a real struggle and battle."
Where the prep schedule encompasses a mere 20-25 games each season, the NAHL schedule is closer to 60. This makes consistency over a long period of time something Boitz and his staff try to ingrain early.
"Seth so far has been very consistent," Boitz said. "So far it's been good but we'll see here now, we're just 14-15 games in, which means by Thanksgiving they've already got a full high school season done with. First-year guys sometimes hit a wall a little bit because they are not used to that much hockey."
"Each player has their peaks and valleys in development so what we need to do as coaches with guys like Seth is try our best to make sure they keep recovering from those valleys."
Along with the mix of newcomers, the Avalanche are fitted with 12 returners from last year's squad which helps with the adoption of the new players brought in.
Diversity is also something teams like the Avalanche deal with season after season as typically, players stay for only a year, two at the most.
"We've got kids from all over the place, but they've really blended very well as a group. Seth especially is one of the favorites in the locker room, which is good. He's been playing a very good role for us overall."
After a tough four-game stretch which saw two games come down to shoot-outs - one with Kenia River and the other with Wenatchee - Johnson and his team gets back onto the ice tonight at the Curtis C. Menard Center as they'll begin a four-game series with Fairbanks.
Fans can keep up-to-date on Johnson and the Avalanche online at the team's website, www.akaves.com.
Doug Etten can be reached via email at detten@lakelandtimes.com.
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