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Saturday night's result proved as predictable as Josh Soares strafing a goaltender or Jean-Philippe Lamoureux flashing his glove to stymie a shooter.
The Alaska Aces advanced out of the first round of the ECHL's Kelly Cup playoffs yet again. The Aces' 5-2 win over host Utah in Game 5 of the West Division semifinal series eliminated the Grizzlies and elevated Alaska as the only club in the league to win a first-round series in each of the last six hockey seasons. Alaska seized the best-of-7 series 4-1 with a third-period scoring explosion triggered -- naturally -- by Soares, the center who scored the club's first two goals and furnished his second straight three-point night. With the teams scoreless through two periods, the Grizzlies earned a 1-0 lead on Vladimir Nikiforov's rebound goal 3 minutes, 23 seconds into the third period at The E-Center in West Valley City. But that advantage, the only one the Grizzlies gained in regulation in the series, lasted a mere 95 seconds before Soares finally solved Utah goalie Michael Mole (43 saves). He struck off a feed from Cam Keith, who bagged a goal and three helpers. "Once we scored, I knew that game was ours,'' Aces alternate captain Matt Shasby said by cell phone. Soares quickly followed with another goal, and Lance Galbraith and Colin Hemingway piled on in short order to give the Aces four goals in a span of 5:40. James Sixsmith answered for Utah just 51 seconds after Hemingway's strike. Yet Lamoureux (26 saves) shut the door on a series in which he surrendered just seven goals in five games and backstopped a penalty-killing crew that wiped out all 23 Utah power plays. Keith added a last-minute empty netter off captain Scott Burt's generous feed. Lamoureux, who began the play by shooting the puck up the boards on left wing, earned an assist, too. And so the Aces, the West Division and National Conference champs, advanced to the West Division finals against the Victoria Salmon Kings, who wrapped their four-game sweep of Idaho on Friday night. The best-of-7 series opens Friday at Sullivan Arena. Not only have the Aces advanced out of the first round for six straight seasons, they have usually done so quickly. In the last four years of first-round, best-of-7 encounters, only once have they required as many as six games to advance. Throw in best-of-5, first-round series wins in 2004 and 2005 and they are 22-5 in the first round. "It's a testament to Terry Parks and the ownership group to put a winning product on the ice every year and do what it takes,'' Shasby said. "And they've had the coaching to advance.'' Keith McCambridge, who captained the Aces to the 2006 Kelly Cup, has been bench boss the last two seasons. Before that, Davis Payne guided the Aces to four first-round wins. Like Shasby, McCambridge said the organization's excellence begins in the front office. "I'm a big believer that it starts from the top, from our ownership group hiring good people, and it all trickles down from there,'' he said. "We have high expectations.'' After a slow start by both teams Saturday, the Aces unloaded 24 second-period shots on Mole, though to no avail. Still, they kept plugging away early in the third period. "We knew eventually, if we kept putting pucks on him, kept getting second chances, kept getting rebounds, we were going to break through,'' McCambridge said. Soares' two strikes finally kick-started the Aces' assault. "The tide really turned for us in the third,'' Shasby said. "Finally, they just couldn't stay with us.'' Eliminating Utah on Saturday night, which rendered unnecessary a Game 6 in Anchorage on Tuesday, means the Aces will be roughly as refreshed as the Salmon Kings when the puck drops Friday at Sullivan. "It's going to make all the difference in the world to get that three days rest we wouldn't have gotten,'' Shasby said.