Sports

Aces sweep Steelheads

The Alaska Aces' reaction proved as muted as their performance was meticulous.

At game's end Friday night, after they secured a 4-0 road victory that dispatched the Idaho Steelheads from the ECHL's Kelly Cup playoffs in a hockey heartbeat, the Aces gathered round winning goaltender Gerald Coleman (28 saves), and gave him the usual congratulatory gloved taps to the helmet and stick taps to the pads.

No dog piles. No vise-like hugs. No screams of jubilation. The scene at Qwest Arena in Boise looked no different than after victory in a regular-season game in January.

As far as the Aces are concerned, their playoff-opening, four-game sweep in the best-of-7, Western Conference semifinals was simply the first step on a journey they hope lasts two more rounds -- that is, all the way to the Kelly Cup Finals.

"Guys are happy -- don't get me wrong, we're proud of what we did,'' Aces coach Brent Thompson said by cellphone. "But we know there's more.

"We earned every inch. We know there's a long, hard road ahead, and we're going to have to earn that too.''

For a franchise that has won one Kelly Cup and made another trip to the Finals in eight ECHL seasons, the playoff sweep returned the club to what it and its supporters consider its rightful place in the postseason -- the next round.

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The Aces will play in the conference finals for the fifth time in eight seasons. They'll play the Victoria Salmon Kings, who beat Utah 2-1 in double overtime Friday to sweep that series.

The Aces series victory marked the seventh time in eight seasons on the circuit they have won their opening playoff series -- the only blemish was last season's first-round dismissal by the Stockton Thunder in Thompson's debut season as a bench boss. This time around, he and his retooled club -- only captain Scott Burt and defenseman Bryan Miller are holdovers from last season -- produced the seventh series sweep in the franchise's ECHL history.

And it left the Aces, who fashioned the league's best record in the regular season and earned a first-round playoff bye courtesy of winning the conference, coveting more.

"We're not going to be satisfied with one series win,'' said Burt.

The Aces seized the series by limiting the Steelheads to a mere two goals in four games as Coleman racked two shutouts and posted a 0.50 goals-against average and .979 save percentage, both of which are patently ridiculous. That prompted Thompson to muse that Coleman has likely kept his status as the team's No. 1 masked man.

"I might give him another chance,'' Thompson said, deadpan. "I don't want him to feel like he's The Man -- gotta keep him on edge.''

The Aces also won by holding Idaho's power play, the league's most potent in the regular season, scoreless on six opportunities Friday and all 13 chances in the series. And they won by scoring first in each game and getting contributions from throughout the lineup.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but winger Scott Howes, who scored the opening goal Friday and added an empty-net strike for his third goal of the series, single-handedly outscored the Steelheads. Ditto for winger Curtis Fraser, whose rebound goal late in the second period furnished a 2-0 lead and marked his third goal of the series.

And league Most Valuable Player Wes Goldie, whose 20-game point streak was snapped in Alaska's 3-1 win Wednesday in Game 3 in Boise, delivered three assists Friday.

As proved the case throughout the series, which the Aces opened with 2-1 and 2-0 victories in Anchorage last week, only Idaho rookie goaltender Jerry Kuhn stood between Alaska and postseason prosperity. Kuhn's .932 save percentage in the series was splendid. One problem: The guy in the other crease played like the league's Goaltender of the Year, which he was.

Alaska slipped the puck past Kuhn very early and very late in the second period, which generated ample cushion.

Howes struck 70 seconds into the period when he yanked his stick from the grasp of Idaho's Evan Barlow behind the net -- a delayed penalty against Barlow was pending -- and stepped out front to sling a wraparound through Kuhn's pads for a 1-0 lead.

Fraser followed in the final minute of the period, converting a rebound off the famously trampoline-like end boards at Qwest. Goldie's shot off the rush from right wing was wide right, but ricocheted hard off the kick-plate at the bottom of the boards and out to the left of Kuhn. Fraser, swooping in to the goal line on the left wing, cranked the rebound off Kuhn and behind him for a 2-0 edge.

"I just put it on net and hoped for the best,'' Fraser said.

After that, the Aces never showed a hint of faltering, or of dropping into cruise control.

"We work, work, work,'' Burt said. "Our M.O. all year has been to outwork teams.''

Tyler Ruegsegger and Howes each added empty-net goals in the late going.

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After that came the muted celebration, if it can even be called that.

"We have the mentality here that we have bigger goals and this was just a stepping stone to the next round,'' Fraser said.

Shuffling the deck

• Howes' two goals extended his point streak to 10 games and gave him 3-10--13 totals in that stretch.

• In their last 32 games dating back to the regular season, the Aces have produced a 27-4-1 record. They are 10-2-0 in their last 12 road games.

• The Aces got a momentary scare when All-Rookie defenseman Mark Isherwood took a Tyler Ludwig slap shot off the knee while killing a penalty late in the first period. Isherwood momentarily left the bench, but walked it off and did not miss a shift.

• Thompson made his first lineup change of the series, inserting rookie winger Kory Falite in place of rookie winger Garry Nunn, who missed his first game all season.

• The Steelheads played without All-Rookie center Kael Mouillierat, who was injured in a wicked collision with Idaho captain Marty Flichel late in Game 3.

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• In the Eastern Conference on Friday, Kalamazoo completed a sweep of Reading with a 5-4 home-ice win and Wheeling beat visiting Greenville, 2-1, to take a 3-1 series lead. That game ended nastily, with Greenville's Brendan Connolly getting a match penalty for spearing and teammate T.J. Reynolds racking 27 penalty minutes, including 10 for leaving the bench and instigating a fight. The match penalty is an automatic one-game suspension and instigating a fight at a time "other than during the periods of the game,'' is a five-game ban, according to ECHL rules.

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

Aces 0 2 2 -- 4

Idaho 0 0 0 -- 0

First Period -- None. Penalties -- Goldie, Aces (roughing), 2:56; Anderson, Aces (interference), 5:28; Flichel, Idaho (interference), 6:07; Howes, Aces (slashing), 12:55.

Second Period -- 1, Aces, Howes 2 (Goldie), 1:10; 2, Aces, Fraser 3 (Goldie, Anderson), 19:02. Penalties -- Fraser, Aces (elbowing), 3:46.

Third Period -- 3, Aces, Ruegsegger 1 (Burt), 18:02 (en); 4, Aces, Howes 3 (Goldie), 18:21 (en). Penalties -- Ward, Aces (tripping), 1:57; Neal, Idaho (slashing), 7:13; Goldie, Aces (slashing), 7:33; Huxley, Idaho, minor-misconduct, served by Hobbins (slashing), 19:40.

Shots on goal -- Aces 8-15-12--35. Idaho 10-10-8--28.

Power-play Opportunities -- Aces 0 of 3; Idaho 0 of 6.

Goalies -- Aces, Coleman, 4-0-0 (28 shots-28 saves). Idaho, Kuhn, 3-5-1 (33-31).

A -- 3,934 (5,006). T -- 2:13.

Referee -- Ryan Murphy. Linesmen -- Francis Trempe, Todd Owen.

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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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