Sports

Aces fall in shootout, but rally twice in third to get pivotal point

The Alaska Aces are a hockey team desperately in need of points, and Saturday night they played with urgency befitting their situation.

The Aces roared back from a two-goal deficit early in the second period and used Tim Coffman's goal late in the third period to send the game to extra time before falling 5-4 in a shootout to the Ontario Reign.

Still, coupled with Friday's 3-2 win at Ontario, the Aces secured three of a possible four points in the first two games of a four-game road trip to California.

Ontario won the six-round shootout, 3-2, with Maxim Kitsyn providing the winner and Daniel Spence, who made 24 saves in regulation and overtime, denying Aces defenseman Colten Hayes on the decisive encounter.

Yet the Aces 22-19-5, who own a five-game point streak (4-0-1), pulled within two points of fourth-place Utah in the battle for the last playoff spot in the ECHL's Pacific Division. The Aces own three games in hand on the Grizzlies, who fell 4-1 at Idaho on Saturday night.

Coffman scored two goals and Aces leading scorer Brendan Connolly had a hand in all four Alaska goals, furnishing one goal and three assists. That marks Connolly's 15th multiple-point game in 46 games this ECHL season and his sixth delivery of three or more points in a game.

The Aces trailed 3-1 after two periods. That deficit came after Coffman opened the scoring midway through the first period and the Reign countered with Robert Czarnik's goal and two power-play goals from Matt White.

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Connolly kick-started the comeback with a power-play strike 53 seconds into the third period for his 20th goal, which ties Olivier Archambault, who is up in the American Hockey League, for the team lead. The goal also gave Connolly a fifth consecutive 20-goal season -- he scored 22 or more goals in each of the previous four ECHL seasons.

Bryan Cameron generated the equalizer for the Aces on the power play four minutes later for a 3-3 tie.

Former Ace Judd Blackwater gave Ontario a 4-3 lead with less than five minutes to play, but Coffman countered two minutes later to produce a 4-4 deadlock that marked the third tie of the night at Citizens Business Bank Arena.

Troy Redmann stopped 25 shots for the Aces.

Gasper Kopitar, Dennis Brown and Kitsyn scored in the shootout for the Reign. Chris Francis and Coffman scored for the Aces.

The Aces converted on 2 of 6 power-play chances -- they converted their last two -- and have cashed in 11 times on 25 power plays in the last five games.

Alaska on Sunday plays its third game in three nights when it meets the rested Bakersfield Condors, who have not played since Wednesday night. The Aces close the trip with a game Tuesday night at Bakersfield before returning home for a pivotal three-game series against Utah.

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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