Jaromir Blagr: The Hockey Blog

A couple thoughts on Aces exhibition opener

Tuesday night's a tight deadline for the dead-trees edition, and there are always a few things that don't make the print edition, so here's a couple items from the Alaska Aces' 3-1 exhibition loss to the Indy Fuel on Tuesday night.

Center Chris Francis and rookie right wing Greg Wolfe enjoyed a bevy of scoring chances playing together on the first line with Bryan Cameron.

Francis fired a game tying-high five shots on goal and furnished Alaska's only goal with his power-play wrister through traffic from atop the left circle. Wolfe had one shot and Cameron three. Francis and Wolfe juuuuust missed a couple of connections that were high-quality scoring chances, which showed potential. Timing was just off by a bit. No doubt the Aces hope that's a sign of good things ahead. Normally, it's a safe bet that veteran Brendan Connolly would man the left side with Francis and Wolfe. Connolly underwent surgery on his left hand in July and didn't play Tuesday, and said he won't play Wednesday. He said pencil him in for the season opener on Oct. 17.

Goaltender Aaron Crandall looked very sharp in stopping 20 of 21 shots before giving way to rookie Andy Iles, who stopped 10 of 12 shots. Crandall helped out the Aces last season when they were in a pinch. Presumably, Crandall and Iles are battling for the back-up job to St. Louis Blues draft pick Niklas Lundstrom, the Swede who has been assigned to the Aces.

The new scoreboard above center ice is quite nice -- and very blue. We didn't get as many replays as we'd like, but, hey, it's preseason for everyone, old ink-stained hockey reporters too.

A friend of the blog noticed both teams dressed 20 players Tuesday. ECHL teams dress 18 in the regular season -- 16 skaters and two goalies. The expansion to 20 is solely for the preseason. It allows coaches to get a look at more players, which is important because players will be cut prior to the start of the regular season.

Oh, and several of you who wrote in the offseason to mention that public address announcer Bob Lester had retired from the position -- I told a few of you I'd make note of it when it happened, I'd believe it when I saw it. Lester manned the mic Tuesday. Vindication!

Doyle Woody

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

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