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In roughly 48 hours over the weekend, the Alaska Aces went from sharing the sixth-best winning percentage in the 20-team ECHL to sharing the 12th-best winning percentage.
Three straight losses tend to inflict that kind of damage on a club's pucks prosperity. The Bakersfield Condors beat the Aces yet again Sunday, dropping them 4-2 at Rabobank Arena in California. That Sunday's setback came by a close score -- Bakersfield sealed victory with an empty netter -- proved little consolation for the Aces (8-7-2), whom the Condors (12-6-0) demolished 6-2 Friday and 7-4 Saturday. The Aces have lost four straight road matches. And life doesn't get any easier for the Aces, who own a .529 winning percentage. They now head to Utah (11-4-0) for a three-game series that starts Wednesday. Following that series, the Aces will return home for a few days, then head back out to play two games at Idaho (13-3-1). Idaho owns the second-best winning percentage (.794) in the league and Utah the third-best (.733). Complicating matters for the Aces are illness and injury. Defenseman Nick Tuzzolino missed Sunday's game with the flu, one night after captain Scott Burt missed a game with the same affliction. Also, winger Curtis Fraser injured his shoulder in the second period Sunday and did not play in the third period. Aces spokesman Jack Michaels listed him as questionable for Wednesday's series opener in Utah and probable for Friday's match. Fraser missed the first nine games of the season with a dislocated shoulder suffered in a fight in a preseason American Hockey League game. In a rare piece of good news for Alaska of late, the club received winger Matt Stefanishion back from Peoria of the American Hockey League in time to play Sunday. He flew out of Chicago on Sunday morning, arrived in Los Angeles and was driven a couple of hours north to Bakersfield by Aces equipment manager Mike Burkhead. Alaska never led in a game in which it surrendered a short-handed goal for the third straight night and Bakersfield rookie winger Dan Sexton, the guy who scored the shortie, continued to torment the Aces. After Bakersfield's Stephane Goulet and Burt traded first-period goals, the Condors seized a 2-1 lead on Shawn Weller's power-play goal late in the second period. Sexton assisted on that strike, then scored short-handed nine minutes into the third period to furnish the Condors a 3-1 cushion. The Aces quickly cut the margin to one goal at 3-2 when rookie center Nick Mazzolini scored on a power play 51 seconds after Sexton's shortie. But with Aces goaltender Scott Reid (27 saves) off for an extra attacker in the final minute, Sexton scored an empty-net goal to give him five goals and five assists in the three-game series. Shuffling the deck The Aces, who went 1 for 5 on the power play Sunday, have gone just 4 of 52 with the man advantage in the last 10 games. Opponents have matched those four power-play goals with four short-handed goals in that span. Center Jason Ryznar, who made his Aces debut in the series after missing the first 14 games of the season with a broken hand, earned 1-3--4 totals in his first three games. Mazzolini has produced 4-2--6 totals in his first eight pro games. Aces winger Colin Hemingway was kept off the score sheet for just the third time in 17 games.