Sports

Aces open road trip with a victory

Cam Keith continued a career season flush with point production.

Brett Hemingway emerged from a season-long scoring funk.

Tomas Kana furnished late-minute mastery for the second straight game.

And, with the prospect of overtime looming, steady, earnest Luke Erickson capped his unyielding performance by rifling home the game-winning goal.

The Alaska Aces needed all those efforts and more Wednesday night, when they generated a season-high 45 shots on goal and used Erickson's strike with just 59 seconds left to capture a 3-2 ECHL road victory over the Ontario Reign.

The win, just Alaska's third in its last 10 hockey games, kick-started a California road trip that continues with games Friday and Saturday nights at Bakersfield.

On a night when the Aces stormed to a 2-0 lead midway through the first period only to see the Reign chip their way back to forge a tie early in the third period, the visitors employed relentless pressure in the final 18 minutes.

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The Aces (19-13-2), who outshot the Reign 17-5 in the third period, finally cracked the home club when the clock drained to the final minute. Kana dashed up the left wing and fed Erickson for a one-timer that beat Ontario rookie goaltender John Murray (42 saves).

For Kana, it marked the second straight game in which he provided last-minute drama. In a 2-1 overtime home loss to Stockton last Saturday, the Aces were able to capture one point in the standings courtesy of Kana's game-tying goal as an extra attacker with 13 seconds left in regulation.

Erickson, meanwhile, has developed into the Aces' third-leading scorer. After being a healthy scratch for four straight games early in the season, he has scored seven goals and 24 points in 30 games this season. Wednesday, he fired six shots on goal.

"He went to the net hard all night,'' Aces coach Keith McCambridge said by cell phone. "He back-checked relentlessly. It was probably his best game of the season.''

Alaska seized a 2-0 lead when Keith and Hemingway scored 54 seconds apart midway through the first period.

Keith banged in defenseman Bryan Miller's pass on a power-play for his 10th goal and career-high 40th point. The fifth-year veteran winger has flourished this season, in part because he has been afforded more offensive opportunity than at any time in his pro career -- he skates on the first line and on the first power-play unit.

Hemingway followed with a goal that will no doubt sooth his psyche. After bagging 21 goals as a rookie last season, he entered Wednesday with just one goal in 19 games. He missed 13 games after requiring surgery to repair a slice to his right ankle suffered in a collision with an opponent, and Wednesday marked his 11th game since returning.

"When I had a meeting with him earlier this week, you could sense his frustration that he wasn't producing,'' McCambridge said. "He was almost putting too much pressure on himself, and when you do that, you try to do too much.''

Ontario (19-12-2) rallied back on Dale Reinhardt's first-period goal and Todd Jackson's tying power-play goal two minutes into the third period.

Still, the Aces just kept firing the puck on Murray, who has compiled a terrific .930 save percentage.

"You need to stay patient against that team,'' McCambridge said. "They're an opponent that waits for you to make mistakes, and takes advantage of them. We stayed patient all night.''

And when Kana fed Erickson for the game winner, patience, not to mention persistence, paid off for the Aces.

Shuffling the deck

Aces rookie goalie Jean Philippe-Lamoureux stopped 23 shots to record his league-leading 16th win. He trimmed his goals-against average to 2.42 and held his save percentage at .924.

One game after being a healthy scratch, Miller not only furnished an assist but matched Erickson's team-high six shots on goal. With 6-17--23 totals in 31 games, Miller is tied for fourth in league scoring among defensemen.

The victory evened Alaska's road record at 8-8-1.

The Aces improved to 8-0-0 when leading after one period and 15-0-0 when leading after two periods.

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The power-play goal the Aces surrendered was just the fifth they have given up in the last 13 games. They have killed 75 of 80 opposing power plays in that span and lead the league with 90.3-percent penalty-killing efficiency.

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

Aces 2 0 1 -- 3

Ontario 1 1 0 -- 2

First Period -- 1, Aces, Keith 10 (Miller, C. Hemingway), 8:55 (pp); 2, Aces, B. Hemingway 2 (Novak, Schmidt), 9:49; 3, Ontario, Reinhardt 4 (Mehalko), 11:58. Penalties -- B. Hemingway, Aces (delay of game-puck over glass), 4:19; Mehalko, Ontario (holding), 8:16; Tuzzolino, Aces (elbowing), 18:43.

Second Period -- None. Penalties -- Curran, Ontario (tripping), 13:16; Ontario bench minor, served by G. Walker (too many men), 16:22.

Third Period -- 4, Ontario, Jackson 9 (Chavira, D. Walker), 2:09; 5, Aces, Erickson 7 (Kana), 19:01. Penalties -- Schmidt, Aces (holding), :57; Card, Ontario (delay of game-puck over glass), 3:31; Knapp, Ontario (cross-checking), 8:59.

Shots on goal -- Aces 17-11-17--45. Ontario 8-12-5--25.

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Power-play Opportunities -- Aces 1 of 5; Ontario 1 of 3.

Goalies -- Aces, Lamoureux 16-9-1 (25 shots-23 saves). Ontario, Murray 11-6-1 (45-42).

A -- 4,345 (9,736). T -- 2:11.

Referee -- Geno Binda. Linesmen -- Tim Digby, Jeremy Hutchins.

By DOYLE WOODY

dwoody@adn.com

Doyle Woody

Doyle Woody covered hockey and other sports for the Anchorage Daily News for 34 years.

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