When Alaska opens its ECHL West Division semifinal series tonight at Sullivan Arena, it will do so with three lines almost equally capable of scoring goals, and scoring them frequently.
The way coach Keith McCambridge assembled his lines in practices this week created scoring punch aplenty, so much so there is no significant drop-off between the so-called first line and third line.
The ostensible first line features center Josh Soares (11 goals in 12 ECHL games this season) between left wing Cam Keith (20 goals) and right wing Colin Hemingway (team-high 25 goals). The "second" line has 20-goal scorer Alexandre Imbeault in the pivot for Lance Galbraith (18 goals in 46 games) and Luke Erickson (21 goals). And the "third'' line features center Tomas Kana (six goals in 30 games) between captain Scott Burt (20 goals) and Matt Stefanishion (18 goals in 39 games).
"In the playoffs, if you have only one line that can score, it's easy to shut down that line,'' Keith said. "You've got to have three lines that can score.
"I look back to our Kelly Cup year (2006) and we had the exact same thing -- three lines capable of scoring.''
Granted, the postseason, where every mistake is magnified, is a different beast than the regular season. Hockey teams, at least the successful ones, tend to preach defense first in the playoffs, when players are more apt to finish their checks and to avoid taking the lazy shortcuts they invariably do in the 72-game regular season.
"Like always in the playoffs, it's about defense first,'' said Burt, a two-time Cup winner with Idaho. "Play defense, and the goals will come.''
Keith said the Aces' balance of scorers enables all the forwards to concentrate on defending responsibly because none of them shoulder the absolute burden to score every game.
"It takes a lot of pressure off me, personally,'' Keith said. "I can focus on playing good defense and playing physical. It's not about personal achievement. It's about getting to the finals.''
McCambridge also has been practicing with two power-play units that, based on regular-season production, should both be able to contribute.
Burt is not on either man-advantage unit, which should make him part of the first pair of penalty-killing forwards. Should center Vladimir Novak, one of the league's premier penalty killers, dress as the Aces' 10th forward, he and Burt will likely see significant penalty-killing time on a unit that led the league in the regular season. Also, Alaska's shutdown defensive pairing of Derick Martin and Ryan Turek should log their usual heavy short-handed minutes -- neither blueliner skates on the power play.
"(McCambridge) recruited smartly,'' Burt said. "He put a pretty strong (penalty kill) together and a pretty good couple of power-play units.''
There's more depth up front too. If Novak doesn't dress as the 10th forward, winger Brett Hemingway would likely fill that slot. And all he did was rack 6-15--21 totals in the last 20 games. Also available is rookie Jordan Foreman, who scored nine goals in 40 games of generally modest ice time and adds some sandpaper (105 penalty minutes) to the lineup.
Shuffling the deck
Aces rookie goaltender Jean-Philippe Lamouruex on Thursday finished second in ECHL Most Valuable Player balloting by league coaches -- league-leading scorer Kevin Baker (57-45--102 totals in 70 games) of regular-season champ Florida earned the honor.
Lamoureux earlier this week was named Goaltender of the Year, and last week was voted both first-team All-ECHL and All-Rookie.
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