Sports

Your Alaska Aces update

The massively depleted Alaska Aces -- eight of their top 10 scorers based on points per game were absent from the lineup in Wednesday's 2-1 shootout win at Colorado -- have received a reinforcement.

The AHL's Iowa Wild on Thursday assigned winger Ryan Walters back to the Aces. Coach Rob Murray today by phone said Walters should be in the lineup Friday night at Colorado for the second game of a three-game series.

Walters in 26 games for the Aces this season has bagged 10-13--23 totals in 26 games, with three power-play goals and a team-leading three short-handed strikes.

He's welcome relief because Murray's forward lines are patchwork at the moment.

Consider the erstwhile Aces -- read: among top 10 scorers on point-per-game-average -- and where they are. In the AHL, Olivier Archambault, Greg Wolfe, Raphael Bussieres, Jason Gregoire, Brad Richard. Bussieres and Richard are both injured too.

Consider the Aces on the roster but missing from the lineup Wednesday: Leading scorer Brendan Connolly, who has missed four games and will miss at least four more with an upper-body injury, and winger Bryan Cameron, who did not play Wednesday because of an upper-body injury. Also, first-pairing defenseman Corey Syvret has been out 17 games with a lower-body injury.

On the upside, Murray said Cameron may be able to return to the lineup Friday -- game-time decision. If the Aces had both Cameron and Walters in the lineup, that would be a big boost up front.

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Meanwhile, NHL St. Louis has returned goalie Niklas Lundstrom to the Aces. He's currently on reserve -- Murray said Lundstrom has been sick -- but the Aces still have three goalies -- Lundstrom, Troy Redmann, who stopped 40 shots in a very strong performance Wednesday and is the presumptive No. 1, and Aaron Crandall. Given the wreck that is the Aces roster at the moment, they could carry three goalies, but don't count on it. Also, Lundstrom played just one relief stretch of 14 minutes while up in AHL Chicago, which basically means he hasn't really played a game in six weeks. Presuming St. Louis didn't send Lundstrom here to work the bench gate, Murray must figure out whether to get him into the lineup while his team chases a playoff spot -- Alaska is currently five points behind Utah for the ECHL Pacific Division's last postseason spot -- or to put the load on Redmann and risk irking an affiliate by using Lundstrom sparingly. Don't envy that decision.

One last thing: Murray said he was generally happy with the debut Wednesday of center Michael Markovic. Murray said the newcomer from the University of Toronto got better as the game progressed and was strong in the face-off circle.

Alaska is in the midst of a five-games-in-seven-days trip that still includes two more games in Colorado on Friday and Saturday, then a game Monday at Bakersfield and Tuesday at Ontario. After that, the Aces don't play again until a March 11 home game against Colorado that opens a three-game series.

Doyle Woody

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

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