Buoyed by Troy Redmann's 26 saves and two goals from defensemen, the Alaska Aces started a four-game road trip to California strongly Friday night with a 3-2 win over the Ontario Reign.
Blueliners Corbin Baldwin and Colten Hayes scored goals for the Aces (22-19-4), and Curt Gogol's power-play strike early in the third period stood up as the game-winning goal.
The Aces have won four straight games. Their victory also snapped a five-game winless skid (0-4-1) on the road entering a rematch Saturday with Ontario.
Alaska's win before an announced crowd of 7,489 at Citizens Business Bank Arena allowed it to remain three points behind the fourth-place Utah Grizzlies in the ECHL's Pacific Division. Utah, which scored three third-period goals to win 3-2 at Idaho on Friday, holds the division's last playoff position. The Aces have three games in hand on the Grizzlies.
This road trip, which also includes two games in Bakersfield, Sunday and Tuesday, represents Redmann's chance to seize the No. 1 job in net. He met the challenge near his hometown a Brea, just 20-odd miles from Ontario, and improved to 6-0-0 this season and 4-0-0 since the Aces picked him up off waivers from the Colorado Eagles.
The game started with a bang -- the bang of fists. Aces winger Jacob Doty and Mike DiPaola dropped the gloves less than two minutes in. Off the ensuing face-off Aces winger Justin Johnson and Jeremy Yablonski, a couple of noted fighters with long ring-rink resumes tangled.
Ontario opened the scoring soon after that with Matt Register, the league's reigning Defenseman of the Year, scoring on a power-play blast from the right point. That marked the first time in eight games the Aces did not open the scoring. It also marked the 16th time in 45 games Alaska's opponent has opened the scoring inside the first five minutes.
But Baldwin got the Aces even at 1-1 with his goal in the final minute of the first period.
Hayes' power-play goal 68 seconds into the second period forged a 2-1 lead for the Aces, but Ontario's Norm Ezekiel answered less than four minutes later.
That 2-2 deadlock held until Gogol scored less than three minutes into the third period. His goal came with Maxim Kitsyn in the box for one of three times in the period.
Aces rookie center Ryan Tesink furnished two assists for this second two-point game of the season.
Aces leading scorer Brendan Connolly fired a game-high seven shots on goal, but had his three-game point streak snapped. Also snapped was Bryan Cameron's streak of a goal in five straight games.
An Aces newcomer, defenseman Evan Renwick, made his club debut and furnished an even rating. The Aces on Friday also signed another defenseman, Felix-Antoine Poulin, who arrived from Canadian college hockey at St. Thomas University.
Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com, check out his blog at adn.com/hockey-blog and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr