Sports

Aces blow four-goal lead, but beat Eagles 5-4 in shootout

Comforted by the serenity of a four-goal, third-period lead on home ice, the Alaska Aces appeared able to cruise to the finish Friday night.

And then the Colorado Eagles went and made things seriously chaotic, and frantic, and altogether insanely white-knuckle, and seemingly out of nowhere the teams improbably found themselves in overtime and a shootout.

What the puck?

The Aces survived to exhale, rather than use all that air for expletives, courtesy of a 5-4 victory that hinged on their victory in a six-round shootout at Sullivan Arena.

The consolation for the Aces (18-18-4) was that they earned two valuable points in the standings. Also, the point they surrendered was to one of the top Pacific Division teams, not the teams -- Bakersfield and Utah -- the Aces are stalking for an ECHL playoff spot.

Still -- the Aces led 4-0 with 12 minutes left in regulation. Yet they needed a 3-2 advantage in the skills contest to win their third straight game, extend their unbeaten streak to four games (3-0-1) and climb back to .500 hockey for the sixth time this season entering Saturday's series finale.

"Obviously, not the way we scripted it,'' said Aces bench boss Rob Murray. "We have to be better in the third period than we have the last couple games. We haven't been able to shut the door.''

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Friday, that was because the Eagles kicked it down in the third period and all but blew it off its hinges.

The Aces owned their 4-0 lead courtesy of Olivier Archambault's first-period goal, his team-leading 20th, and second-period strikes from Curt Gogol, Ryan Walters and Brett Cameron.

To that point, it was all good for the Aces. Gogol had bagged his fifth goal in five games with the club. Walters had snapped his seven-game goal drought and delivered two assists. And Cameron had screamed his delight, which seemed fitting for a guy who snapped a personal 20-game goal funk. Goaltender Johan Gustafsson, in his home-ice debut, which marked just his second game with the Aces, seemed in control.

"I felt like we couldn't get a good shot on net the first two periods they were playing so well,'' said Colorado captain Trent Daavettila.

And then Aces winger Justin Breton took a hooking penalty in the offensive zone and Brendan Connolly got tagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Connolly said he didn't say a word to referee Pierre Lambert, but motioned at the official -- as if to ask, "What gives? -- after he felt he was tripped and no call was forthcoming.

Cue the Colorado comeback.

Defenseman Brett Kulak ripped home a slapper from the high slot on a two-man advantage. Taylor Vause followed with a rebound goal on a one-man advantage. With Brad Cole off for hooking, Collin Bowman bombed his 13th goal, tops among ECHL defensemen. And, with the Eagles employing an extra attacker, Kulak delivered the game-tying goal on Daavettila's cross-crease feed behind Gustafsson (28 saves) to tie the game 4-4 with 68 seconds left in regulation.

"They get a couple of goals on you and you start to squeeze the sticks,'' said Connolly, whose assist pushed his point streak to seven games. "The tendency, even though you don't want to, is to sit back. You need to keep the pedal down.''

Daavettila, whose three assists gives the veteran center 25 points in his 12-game point streak, said the consecutive power-play goals from Kulak and Vause just 71 seconds apart propelled his club.

"Like it does a lot of times, our power play can spark us, and get them back on their heels,'' he said.

The Aces enjoyed a power play in overtime. Colorado starter Daniel Spence, who got the second-period hook after Alaska pumped its lead to 3-0 but came back in when Clarke Saunders took a teammates' knee to the head in a goal-mouth sequence, flashed his blocker to rebuff a Cole shot.

At the other end, Aces defenseman Corbin Baldwin got his stick in the way of an excellent opportunity by Bowman, and Gustafsson came well out of his crease to deny a Bowman one-timer.

In the shootout, Connolly and Greg Wolfe scored for the Aces inside the first four rounds. Daavettila scored in the opening round for the Eagles and Chris Knowlton's fifth-round backhander forged a 2-2 tie. Aces defenseman Colten Hayes beat Spence between the pads in the sixth round and Gustafsson secured the victory by denying Chris Duszynski.

And the Aces pocketed a dramatic victory, and gave the announced crowd of 4,045 an unexpected thrill -- or near heart-attack -- on a night when it long looked like they would seize a routine win.

"That's what tried to do,'' Connolly said, deadpan. "The Cowbell Crew needed some excitement.''

Shuffling the deck

The ECHL announced Friday that it next season will have franchises in Manchester, New Hampshire, Norfolk, Virginia, and Glens Falls, New York. Those three locations lost American Hockey League franchises on Thursday, when that circuit one notch below the NHL announced they will place franchises next season in five California cities, including Bakersfield, Stockton and Ontario, which currently have franchises in the ECHL.

That announcement has zero impact on the Aces.

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Still, Aces managing partner Terry Parks released a statement Friday assuring fans the club is here to stay, as the Alaska Dispatch News reported Thursday. Parks said the Aces have extended a three-year agreement with the ECHL and extended by five years its lease at Sullivan Arena.

The ECHL announced it will also cap its maximum number of teams at 30. That's an effort to match the number of teams in both the NHL and AHL. The ECHL also announced that the Las Vegas Wranglers, who were taking the season off, could not arrange a facility to play in 2015-16, and have surrendered their membership in the league.

Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com, check out his blog at adn.com/hockey-blog and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr

Doyle Woody

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

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