Salmon bake: Aces take Game 3 over Victoria

Either way -- and there was truth in both analyses -- the Aces' 5-2 victory in British Columbia proved stunning.

The Aces charged back from a two-goal deficit after two periods, strafed Victoria for four goals in less than six minutes early in the third and shoved the Salmon Kings to the precipice of elimination in the ECHL's West Division finals.

Alaska leads the best-of-7 series 3-0 entering Friday night's Game 4 at the Save-On-Foods Centre. No team in the league's 21-season history has rebounded from a 3-0 deficit to win a series.

Not surprisingly, Aces winger Colin Hemingway triggered his club's turnaround. He sandwiched goals around strikes from captain Scott Burt and linemate Josh Soares to bookend that four-goal blitz. That flurry against Victoria goaltender Todd Ford (24 saves) took five shots on goal and 5:49, and it furnished the Aces a 4-2 lead.

Hemingway also assisted on Soares' goal, and his three-point night gave him a startling 10 points -- four goals, six assists -- in the series.

"After we got the first one, we were confident on the bench,'' Hemingway said by cell phone from Victoria. "And after Burt scored, we were telling guys, 'Shoot, shoot, shoot.' You could tell Ford was a little shaky.''

Indeed, Hemingway's second goal came on a 50-foot, power-play wrister that didn't have an abundance of steam behind it.

By the time the Aces' four-goal flourish was complete, the visitors had sucked the life out of an announced crowd of 4,449.

Still, the Aces' record-setting, penalty-killing crew needed to burn off a five-minute slashing major to Aces winger Matt Stefanishion. On a later penalty kill, Aces center Vladimir Novak twisted the knife with a short-handed goal.

Aces record-setting rookie goaltender Jean-Philippe Lamoureux (31 saves) was a hero who flew below the radar. After surrendering two first-period goals, he rebuffed the Salmon Kings the rest of the way. His consecutive, point-blank saves on former Aces center Olivier Filion in the waning seconds of the first period kept his club within striking distance.

"That's what J.P. does,'' Hemingway said. "He's an (all-league) goalie and we expect him to make those saves. It could easily have been 3-0 or 4-0 in the first.''

Meanwhile, Ford in the first two periods looked as if he had regained his groove. He limited Idaho to four goals in four games in a first-round sweep, but the Aces tortured him for eight goals on 40 shots in wins in Games 1 and 2 in Anchorage. The Aces won 3-0 in Game 1 and chased Ford after two periods in an 8-2 Game 2 victory.

Victoria's energy line of center Chris St. Jacques and wingers Olivier Labelle and Darryl Lloyd carried the play early with their body-banging style and two first-period goals. Labelle struck on deflection and St. Jacques slammed in a goal from Lamoureux's doorstep.

"We knew we were going to face a desperate team and, obviously, they came out with their best,'' said Aces coach Keith McCambridge. "And through about a period and a half or two periods, Ford made all the saves and they beat us to all the loose pucks.

"They out-competed us, and their battle level was clearly higher than ours.''

All that quickly changed early in the third period, though.

"There wasn't any sort of panic in our locker room after two periods,'' said Aces defenseman Matt Shasby. "We only had to get one goal to make it a game.

"Once we got one, I don't know if they got tired, or if we just elevated our game. It's definitely better to be up 3-0 than 2-1.''

And winning certainly kept their bench boss happy, especially after a mediocre performance in the first half of the game.

"We'll consider ourselves lucky,'' McCambridge said.

Still, remarkable rally or epic collapse?

"Maybe you can't explain it,'' Shasby said.

Shuffling the deck

Center Alexandre Imbeault was a scratch. McCambridge said Imbeault arrived at the morning skate ailing with an upper-body injury.

"I think he just slept on it wrong,'' McCambridge said. "He looked like he was in pain.''

After missing four games with a bruised knee, Stefanishion returned to the lineup. With Imbeault out, Luke Erickson, who had been playing wing in the playoffs, returned to his natural spot at center.

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Find Doyle Woody's blog online at adn.com/hockeyblog or call him at 257-4335.

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Aces 0 0 5 -- 5

Victoria 2 0 0 -- 2

First Period -- 1, Victoria, Labelle 4 (Gladue, Lloyd), 3:01; 2, Victoria, St. Jacques 1 (Labelle, Brocklehurst), 18:41. Penalties -- Brocklehurst, Victoria (holding), 7:37; Coulombe, Victoria (roughing), 13:25; Burt, Aces (roughing), 13:25.

Second Period -- None. Penalties -- Burt, Aces (high-sticking), 2:28; O'Connor, Victoria (roughing), 5:06; Stefanishion, Aces (high-sticking), 5:06; Marsh, Aces (holding), 6:08; Taylor, Victoria (goaltender interference), 9:35; St. Jacques, Victoria (cross-checking), 18:22.

Third Period -- 3, Aces, C. Hemingway 4 (Keith, Miller), 2:57; 4, Aces, Burt 3 (Stefanishion, Turek), 3:35; 5, Aces, Soares 6 (Keith, C. Hemingway), 5:21; 6, Aces, C. Hemingway 5 (Shasby), 8:46 (pp); 7, Aces, Novak 1 (Keith), 17:51 (sh). Penalties -- Stefanishion, Aces, major-game misconduct, served by Galbraith (slashing), 9:31; Lloyd, Victoria (holding), 14:46; Marsh, Aces (holding), 17:27; Labelle, Victoria (slashing), 17:51; O'Connor, Victoria (unsportsmanlike conduct), 19:57; Galbraith, Aces (unsportsmanlike conduct), 19:57.

Shots on goal -- Aces 9-9-11--29. Victoria 12-10-11--33.

Power-play Opportunities -- Aces 1 of 6; Victoria 0 of 4.

Goalies -- Aces, Lamoureux, 7-1 (33 shots-31 saves). Victoria, Ford, 4-3 (29-24).

A -- 4,449 (7,000). T -- 2:19.

Referee -- Andy Thiessen. Linesmen -- Trent Knorr, Tim Bilyk.