Yes, travel to Alaska is "long and hard", but if each team does it once
then it balances out for the entire conference.  The resulting advantage at
home for a team like Anchorage is probably more than offset by the fact
that they make the trip the opposite direction not once but eight times,
nine unless they gain home advantage for the conference tournament!  I
think that's the reason they are much better at home and failed to get a
single road win all season.  They do play better against Fairbanks in the
Sullivan Arena, but they hardly appeared to be an 0-17-2 road team when
they played in Fairbanks.  Seems like they also lost a few road games in
which they led well into the game.  Fatigue and effects from the travel
must have played some factor in those games.
 
I could probably be convinced otherwise, but my wife grew up and has
relatives on the east coast in southeastern Massachusetts, and she is
absolutely adamant that the west to east jet lag from Alaska is far worse
than coming this way.  That certainly showed itself in Anchorage's
performance on the road.
 
As for Fairbanks, their scheduling makes for somewhat of a different case.
 They seem to play longer road trips which may be harder in one sense, but
may give them more of an opportunity to get used to the effects of
travelling east.  I'm not sure, but I also think they scheduled the travel
to give them some time for recovery.  Visiting teams in Fairbanks certainly
seemed to play well enough, but the effects of their traveling here are
somewhat offset by the fact that Fairbanks frequently has two or more weeks
off between series.  Three games isn't that easy to play on a trip up here
I'm sure, but I think most teams are more likely to come up with at least
one win in three chances here than in two.  When UAF gets to where they can
sweep the three game series at home against any CCHA team and not get swept
at home by the top teams, then they will be very formidable.
 
As Ted Halm pointed out earlier, teams that schedule road trips to Alaska
probably need to try to schedule an open weekend the week after to recover
or the effects of the trip may be likely to show up the next weekend as
well and last even longer.  Bowling Green came to Fairbanks at Thanksgiving
and swept all three games but then went home to a tough game the next
weekend with Michigan and was blasted 8-1 and followed that with three
straight road losses.  That string may have ultimately kept them out of the
NC$$ playoffs.  And it may be unwise to schedule a series here the last
weekend of the regular season, even if it is spring break.  Western
Michigan went home after playing three the last weekend of the season and
then fell the next weekend to Bowling Green the opening weekend of the CCHA
playoffs and was taken out of the NC$$ playoffs in their first game.  Other
teams should pay attention to those experiences, then maybe the travel will
be less of an issue.
 
Eric Carlson
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