Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Alaska Nanooks right wing Braden Walls used to possess the nickname “Train Wreck.”

Former Alaska Nanooks head coach Tavis MacMillan, in a January 2006 interview, said the nickname was related to the skating style of the then freshman rather than to a disaster.

“We call him that because his arms and legs are going everywhere when he skates,” MacMillan said. “Everywhere he goes, he does so in a straight line. When he runs into someone, he doesn’t curve; he goes straight into him like

a train wreck. By no means is it a derogatory term; it’s a compliment to the way he plays.”

Even the Lawson Lunatics — the student section at Western Michigan University’s Lawson Arena — shouted the nickname last March 4 after Walls received an interference penalty in a Central Collegiate Hockey Association playoff game.

This season, the train has stayed on the track rather than be in a state of wreckage.

The 6-foot-1, 229-pound junior from Calgary, Alberta, has improved his skating and is more mature, spending more time on the ice than in the penalty box.

Walls collected 43 penalties for 86 minutes in his first two seasons.

His discipline this season is apparent, as his eight penalties for 16 minutes don’t even rank among the top five for the Nanooks.

Last season, Walls skated often with then junior left wing Kyle Greentree and senior center Curtis Fraser, who are now playing professionally. Walls’ size and strength allowed him to open space for the Nanooks’ top two scorers of 2006-07.

“I tried to help them create things and sometimes, I’d make a hit that would send me to the penalty box,” Walls, who has played in all 24 games this season, said after Wednesday’s practice at the Carlson Center, where the Nanooks host the Western Michigan Broncos at 7:05 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Walls may be making fewer trips to the penalty box this season, but he’s hitting just as intensely as before.

“When he throws a check, it’s a solid check,” Alaska head coach Doc DelCastillo said.

“I don’t think him staying out of the box has changed how hard he plays.”

There’s a side of Walls that DelCastillo would like to see more — the junior as an offensive threat.

“There’s certain times that he shows signs of being brilliant on the ice,” DelCastillo said.

One of those moments stood out to the first-year head coach — a power-play goal in the first period of a 4-1 win over Northern Michigan last Nov. 30 at the Carlson Center.

“He came down against Northern Michigan, and boom! top shelf,” DelCastillo said. “That looked like a 6-2 guy that could skate, come down, go top shelf … that looks like a guy who could play in the National Hockey League. He has to work on more consistency.”

The head coach, 2,994 Alaska fans and the Nanooks themselves saw that side of Walls in the third period of last Saturday’s 7-2 loss to then No. 2 Miami (Ohio).

The Nanooks were trailing 6-1 when Walls, with assists from junior center Adam Naglich and junior defenseman Tyler Eckford, streaked into the right circle and sent a blistering shot past the blocker of the RedHawks junior goaltender Jeff Zatkoff at 11:55 of the period. Zatkoff, 6-3 and 170 pounds, stopped 44 of 46 shots in the series and shut out Alaska 2-0 Friday.

“Everybody was not happy about the way the game was going for us,” Walls said. “I wanted to do something to help change the momentum. Eckford gave me a good pass and I shot it as quickly as I could.”

Walls has three goals and four assists for seven points this season, tying him for sixth place among Nanooks scorers.

There’s no need to figure out Walls’ intangibles.

“There’s some things there that you can’t teach,” DelCastillo said. “You can’t teach that size, you can’t teach skating for that size and at times, he’s shows a good skill level. But it all needs to be put together at one time.

“There’s times that he shows it and there’s times that you don’t see it.”

The Nanooks saw that skill level in the third period Saturday night.

Ice chips

Alaska got an unexpected day off Tuesday because of a nearly four-hour power outage at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The outage began around 10 a.m. and the Nanooks were scheduled to practice from 12:30-2 p.m. in the Patty Center.

• Eckford continues to lead the nation’s defensemen in points per game average (0.96) with 6-17-23 totals in 24 games. The 2004 New Jersey Devils draft pick has produced at least one point in each of Alaska’s 12 CCHA series this season.