Sports

Third-period pain for Aces in 4-2 road loss to Quad City

Though the sample size is small – eight hockey games – the Alaska Aces have been one of the ECHL's worst teams in killing penalties on the road.

Their third-period performance Friday night reinforced that shortcoming.

The Quad City Mallards scored on both their third-period power plays and added an empty-net goal to deliver a come-from-behind 4-2 win over the Aces at the iWireless Center in Moline, Illinois.

Alaska's hosts have now converted 7 of 21 power plays for 33.3 percent efficiency that has spotlighted the Aces' penalty-killing deficiency.

The Mallards bookended a difficult six-game road swing for the Aces (5-10-2), who fell 7-4 to Quad City (7-5-3) to open the trip and lost Friday to end it. The Aces went 1-4-1 on the trip, and their 0-3-1 start to the journey furnished the tail-end of an eight-game winless streak (0-7-1) that is the longest in the franchise's 13 ECHL seasons.

For much of Friday, the Aces appeared capable of stamping a decent ending to their roadie. Joe Perry's first-period goal and Landon Oslanski's second-period, power-play strike – Alaska's first power-play goal in eight games – afforded them a 2-1 lead through two periods. Quad City's first goal came from defenseman Alex Gudbranson and was literally a first-period, buzzer-beater that forged a 1-1 tie.

Still, the Aces' 2-1 lead held nearly halfway through the third period before Quad City winger Olivier Archambault, the former Ace, tipped Mike Monfredo's power-play shot to forge a 2-2 tie.

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Five minutes later, Quad City defenseman Jake Baker scored with the man advantage to give his club its first lead of the game at 3-2. Tanner Eberle sealed victory for the Mallards with an empty-net goal.

Aces goaltender Troy Redmann made 28 saves and Mallards backstop Steve Michalek stopped 26 shots.

In the Aces' last two games – they won 6-2 Wednesday at Evansville – they have been badly outshot in third periods. Granted, Quad City enjoyed the only two power plays of the final 20 minutes Friday, but they still outgunned the Aces, 14-5, in the third. Coupled with Evansville's 17-3 third-period shot advantage Wednesday, Alaska's opponents have outshot it 31-8 in the last two third periods.

The Aces return to Anchorage for a six-game homestand that opens next week with a three-game series against Evansville.

Shuffling the deck

Oslanski's power-play goal snapped a string of 14 consecutive fruitless power plays for the Aces.

Aces winger Garet Hunt had his four-game point streak halted and center Tyler Maxwell's three-game point streak was snapped.

Alaska fell to 2-5-1 on the road.

Aces captain William Wrenn sat out with a lower-body injury, as did defenseman Gleason Fournier. Coupled with winger David Eddy's absence (upper-body injury), the Aces dressed 10 forwards and five defensemen, marking the first time this season they have dressed fewer than the maximum 16 skaters allowed in the ECHL.

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

Aces 1 1 0 -- 2

Quad City 1 0 3 -- 4

First Period – 1, Aces, Perry 5 (Oslanski), 11:11; 2, Quad City, Gudbranson 1 (Archambault), 19:59. Penalties -- None.

Second Period – 3, Aces, Oslanski 3 (Perfetto, Vandane), 8:05 (pp). Penalties – Gelinas, Quad City (cross-checking), 6:20; Eberle, Quad City (roughing), 9:25; Coffman, Aces (roughing), 9:25; Monfredo, Quad City (interference), 11:36; Koules, Quad City (high-sticking), 13:24; Hunt, Aces (roughing), 15:12; Monfredo, Quad City (hooking), 19:06.

Third Period – 4, Quad City, Archambault 5 (Monfredo, Bussieres), 8:55 (pp); 5, Quad City, Baker 2 (Monfredo, Nikiforov), 14:03 (pp); 6, Quad City, Eberle 6 (Pochiro, McMillan), 19:26 (en). Penalties – Lake, Aces (hooking), 7:18; Coffman, Aces (tripping), 12:25.

Shots on goal – Aces 10-13-5—28. Quad City 5-13-14—32.

Power-play Opportunities – Aces 1 of 4. Quad City 2 of 3.

Goalies – Aces, Redmann, 4-7-2 (31 shots-28 saves). Quad City, Michalek, 3-3-1 (28-26).

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A – 4,082 (9,000). T – 2:19.

Referee – Tyler Puddifant. Linesmen – Neil Campbell, Ryan Daisy.

Doyle Woody

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

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