Alaska extends unbeaten streak

Call Ruegsegger's contribution an assist. Or a helper. Or, to use hockey vernacular, call it an "apple.'' But for the second-year winger, his hand in Wes Goldie's insurance goal for the Alaska Aces on Wednesday night offered both sweet redemption and blessed relief.

That's because Goldie's goal midway through the third period not only helped the Aces to a 3-1 ECHL victory over the Utah Grizzlies that stretched their unbeaten streak to 10 games, it also made up for Ruegsegger's ghastly mistake in the final minute of the first period.

With the game between the circuit's top two teams scoreless, Ruegsegger collected the puck along the boards in his zone and fired a pass to the middle of the ice -- and directly onto the stick blade of Grizzlies center Justin Dowling in the high slot. Dowling busted in on Aces goaltender Gerald Coleman and slipped a forehand behind him.

"I clearly didn't see the guy,'' Ruegsegger said. "If I did, I'm the worst hockey player ever.''

When the Aces went to their dressing room at intermission, Ruegsegger said he got nothing but support from his teammates.

"The boys all said, 'Don't worry about it,' " Ruegsegger said.

With a reputation for earnest and relentless hard work, there seemed little doubt Ruegsegger would spend the rest of the game trying to make up for his error.

"It's a game of mistakes,'' said Aces center Ethan Cox. "You just don't want a mistake to beat you. When Ruegs makes a mistake, you know he's going to make up for it. No one ever worries about that.''

Ruegsegger said one thing he knew after his mistake was that he couldn't try to make up for it all at once or by trying to do too much.

"That's a lifetime process of learning,'' Ruegsegger said. "I've been in situations like that where you make a mistake and dwell on it, and it doesn't help. You have to shut it down and move on.

"But you can't try to do too much, because it's a team sport.''

Ruegsegger's make-up moment came with the Aces (16-4-2) leading 2-1 nearly nine minutes into the third period, Ruegsegger carried the puck out of his zone and sidestepped Utah defenseman Cody Lampl at the red line while banking the puck off the boards. Ruegsegger darted past Lampl, picked up the puck on left wing and whipped a backhand pass that Goldie chipped past the stick of Utah goaltender Shane Owen (29 saves).

Ruegsegger later laughed about his celebration of the goal.

"Yeah, I was pretty excited, probably the most excited I've been about an apple in a long time,'' he said.

While the goal he set up came from a guy who knows a thing about scoring -- Goldie's goal was his 343rd in the ECHL -- the Aces' first two goals came from unlikely suspects.

Rookie defenseman Kane Lafranchise's power-play strike to forge a 1-1 tie 100 seconds into the second period marked his first goal as a pro. The goal came in the 41st career pro game for Lafranchise, who joined the Aces late last season. He took a cross-ice pass from Dan Kissel at the bottom of the left circle and roofed a wrister.

Like Ruegsegger, Lafranchise was relieved. Now he doesn't have to listen to his teammates chirp him. Or have equipment manager Mike Burkhead good-naturedly tell him he might want to score before he attains veteran status in the ECHL (260 games).

"The guys kind of joke about it,'' Lafranchise said. "Burkie says, 'Get it before you become a vet.' Lately, I've been trying to shoot more, and for once I shot it instead of passing it.''

Rookie wing Matt Ambroz gave the Aces a 2-1 lead late in the second period with his second goal as a pro.

Coleman made the lead stand with another night at the office -- 21 saves for his league-leading 13th win.

The Aces' 10-game unbeaten streak (8-0-2) ties for the fifth-longest in the franchise's nine seasons in the ECHL.

Utah (13-7-1), which had its four-game unbeaten streak (3-0-1) snapped in the opener of a three-game set that continues Friday night, showed the announced crowd of 3,282 the most talented Grizzlies team that has visited Sullivan in ages.

"It was a fast game and it was a fun game, and that game could have gone either way,'' said Utah captain Nick Tuzzolino, the former Aces defenseman. "We think of the Aces as a measuring stick, and we feel like we're right there.''

Indeed, Utah is 3-2-0 against the Aces this season and the only opponent with a winning record against Alaska.

In those five games between the teams, Wednesday's was the first one truly decided by more than one goal. In four previous games, the Grizzlies won two one-goal games in regulation and won another in a shootout. The Aces' previous win over Utah came by two goals, but included an empty-netter, so it was essentially a one-goal game.

Shuffling the deck

There were a mere three power plays in the game, the fewest in an Aces game this season. The Aces converted on their lone man advantage and killed both Utah power plays.

All that flipped the teams in the league's penalty-killing rankings. Alaska leap-frogged Utah into first place in that category with its 86.3-percent penalty-killing efficiency. Utah is now second at 85.4 percent.

Aces winger Zach Harrison missed his sixth straight game with an upper-body injury.

Aces center Nick Mazzolini is playing through an upper-body injury, but whatever it is, he isn't taking face offs. That's one reason he skated at wing Wednesday.

Tuzzolino said the Grizzlies need to test Alaska's goaltending more.

"In the end, we've got to shoot the puck more and get in there and battle,'' he said.

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

Utah 1 0 0 -- 1

Aces 0 2 1 -- 3

First Period -- 1, Utah, Dowling 3, 19:39. Penalties -- McIlveen, Utah (hooking), 19:55.

Second Period -- 2, Aces, Lafranchise 1 (Kissel, Nunn), 1:40 (pp); 3, Aces, Ambroz 2 (Cox, Kremyr), 16:43. Penalties -- Ward, Aces (tripping), 9:28.

Third Period -- 4, Aces, Goldie 8 (Ruegsegger, Sinkewich), 8:47. Penalties -- Ambroz, Aces (slashing), 1:21; Mazzolini, Aces (elbowing), 10:13; Tuzzolino, Utah (roughing), 10:13.

Shots on goal -- Utah 10-4-8--22. Aces 10-12-10--32.

Power-play Opportunities -- Utah 0 of 2; Aces 1 of 1.

Goalies - Utah, Owen, 3-1-1 (32 shots-29 saves). Aces, Coleman, 13-3-1 (22-21).

A -- 3,282 (6,399). T -- 2:18.

Referee -- Curtis Marouelli. Linesmen -- Steve Glines, Chad Colliander.

Woody on hockey

Anchorage's Jordan Smelker, who leads Rensselaer in scoring, is among 41 women invited to USA Hockey's National Team training camp later this month. adn.com/hockeyblog