Wes Goldie and Brian Swanson, the Alaska Aces' top two scorers in last season's run to the Kelly Cup, are off to slow starts this hockey season.
Tonight, they will be reunited with a guy who could help kick-start them and also help the club squelch a two-game losing streak.
Left wing Scott Howes, the Kelly Cup Most Valuable Player who played on a potent line with Goldie and Swanson last season, will make his season debut against the Bakersfield Condors at Sullivan Arena.
Howes missed the club's first seven games while recovering from offseason shoulder surgery. Still, his return is well ahead of the initial timetable and Aces coach Rob Murray on Tuesday said Howes, who has been practicing on a line with Goldie and Swanson, would be in the lineup tonight.
"I'm excited,'' Howes said. "I'm pumped.''
Last season, the Swanson line combined for 92 goals and 212 points.
While Howes clearly shouldn't be expected to be in midseason form -- he hasn't played since the Cup clincher May 21 -- he and his linemates have the luxury of familiarity. They spent all last regular season and the playoffs together, both as an even-strength line and on a power-play unit.
Howes will be the fourth left wing this season to play with Swanson, a center, and Goldie, a right wing.
"With Howie back on our line, the chemistry is really good,'' Goldie said. "We played together so much last season and we pretty much know where the other guys will be.
"When you're interchanging wings, you start guessing instead of knowing, and we've been guessing wrong.''
Goldie, the ECHL's reigning regular-season goal-scoring champ (46 goals last season) and Most Valuable Player, has scored just one goal in seven games, and none in the last five games. His six points lead the Aces in points, but he's a goal scorer -- Goldie is the only player in league history to string together five consecutive seasons of 40 or more goals.
Goldie said he thinks opponents have made a point of checking the Aces' top line closely.
"I'd say I haven't had a lot of quality chances, what I'd call gimmes,'' Goldie said.
Goldie, however, has always been streaky. It's not usual for his to go four or five games without a goal before ripping off, say, seven goals in five games.
Swanson, whose 70 points in 69 games last season ranked second on the team behind Goldie's 83 points, owns 0-4--4 totals in seven games this season. He said he and Goldie understand they have to produce more.
"We both know, and we've talked about it,'' said Swanson, the Aces' captain. "When you're winning, it's OK. But when you're losing, especially one-goal games (like both Aces losses), every goal helps. We're working at it.
"We know you can ride hot and cold streaks. The bottom line is, you just have to keep playing.''
Murray said he thinks Goldie and Swanson will be fine.
"They haven't dominated - well, couple of home games they did,'' Murray said. "Expectations are they'll be your best guys, but it's a team thing too. I have no worries.
Howes said he is just eager to get in a game.
"I feel like I'm ready, as ready as I can be without having played a game,'' he said. "My feet feel like they're there. My hands feel like they're there. My wind? I don't know, without playing a game.''
Shuffling the deck
Dan Kissel, who bagged four goals in the Aces' first five games before being loaned to Bridgeport Sound of the American Hockey League, has been returned to the Aces.
The Aces were able to get Kissel on a flight Tuesday and he was expected to arrive in Anchorage late Tuesday night, so he should be in the lineup tonight.
Wing Garry Nunn, who has missed three games with a sprained ankle, won't play tonight, Murray said. The coach said Nunn could be back as early as Friday's middle game in the three-game set with the Condors.
Center Ethan Cox tonight will serve the final game of his three-game, league-imposed suspension.
Bakersfield rookie Scott Freeman (No. 11) is tied for second in the league in goals (6). The Condors include veteran winger and former Aces enforcer Hans Benson (No. 32).
For what it's worth, the Aces are 5-0-0 at home, and the Condors are 1-2-1 on the road. The Condors' rookie coach is Matt O'Dette, 35, the former Stockton assistant coach. In a 14-year pro career as a defenseman, O'Dette played extensively in the AHL and in the ECHL for Fresno, Stockton and, back in the '90s, the Roanoke Express.
Find Doyle Woody's blog at adn.com/hockeyblog or call him at 257-4335.
By DOYLE WOODY
Anchorage Daily News