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Former UAF skater Curtis Fraser scored on a partial breakaway with less than seven minutes to play Saturday night to cement the Las Vegas Wranglers' 3-1 victory over the visiting Alaska Aces and give Las Vegas a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 ECHL National Conference semifinal series.
Las Vegas' win came after its 8-0 ambush of the Aces at Orleans Arena on Friday night.Wranglers goaltender Kevin Lalande stopped 22 shots. He held the Aces scoreless for the first 106 minutes, 8 seconds of the series. Aces captain Matt Shasby finally broke through, netting his team-high third goal of the postseason at 6:08 of the third period to cut Las Vegas' lead to 2-1.But Fraser scored his fourth goal in three playoff games at 13:30 to restore the Wranglers' two-goal lead.Aces goalie Chris Beckford-Tseu made 40 saves.Game 3 is Tuesday night at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage and Game 4 is Thursday night at Sullivan.The only other time the Aces have trailed 2-0 in an ECHL series in their five seasons in the league was last year, when they dropped the first two games at home to Idaho in the National Conference finals. The Steelheads won that series in five games on their way to capturing their second Kelly Cup in four seasons.