Justin Breton bagged his first goal as a pro hockey player. Aaron Crandall delivered a career-high 35 saves. And the Alaska Aces racked another power-play goal.
None of it soothed the club's misery -- the Aces lug a five-game winless streak (0-4-1) into the ECHL's All-Star Classic break after falling 4-2 Saturday night to the Colorado Eagles to wrap up a nearly fruitless six-game road trip.
Alaska never led, though it did hit the second intermission tied 1-1 before Colorado generated two goals in the opening eight minutes of the third period and used Nathan Moon's empty-net goal to assure its sixth consecutive victory.
The Aces (15-17-3) went 1-4-1 on the trip, which deteriorated after they won their trip opener in Utah. After that, they fell twice to Idaho and lost three in Colorado, though they did secure a point in the standings with a 5-4 overtime setback Friday.
Compounding the Aces' woes was the loss of defenseman Corey Syvret, hurt in the first period Saturday and, according to coach Rob Murray in a postgame radio interview, likely to miss a substantial amount of time. The Aces already lost center Tim Coffman to injury on the trip. Also, their leading goal scorer and leading goal scorer among defensemen -- Olivier Archambault and Brad Richard -- are on promotion to the Iowa Wild of the American Hockey League.
So, there's not much brewing on the upside for the Aces at the moment.
Goaltending has been a shortcoming for the Aces throughout the season -- try to think of a game an Alaska masked man straight-up stole.
Still, Crandall kept the Aces within striking distance.
The game began as many Alaska matches do, with the opponent opening the scoring inside the opening five minutes. Brock Nixon did the honors this time, furnishing his team-leading 20th goal on the power play 4:29 into the match at the sold-out Budweiser Events Center in Loveland.
But Crandall stiffened, and Brendan Connolly's power-play rebound goal five minutes into the second period proved the equalizer that lasted throughout the period.
Vitalijs Pavlovs, the 6-foot-5 Latvian forward, scored on a backhander five minutes into the third period and Kyle Kraemer followed three minutes later to stake Colorado to a 3-1 lead.
Breton's goal less than two minutes later, in his 16th game in the play-for-pay world, cut Alaska's deficit to 3-2.
Yet the Aces could not again crack Clarke Saunders (30 saves) and Moon's empty-net strike sent them packing.
The Aces are off until they open a three-game series against the Idaho Steelheads at Sullivan Arena on Friday night. The series starts a nine-game homestand that includes three-game series against the Eagles and the Stockton Thunder.
Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com, check out his blog at adn.com/hockey-blog and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr