Sports

More Aces anguish in 4-2 home-ice loss to Evansville

Promising signs emerged for the Alaska Aces early Friday night: They opened the scoring with a first-period, power-play goal, held the Evansville IceMen to just four shots in the opening 20 minutes and carried a lead into the locker room.

Yet things soon began to unravel on the Aces, as they have so often this hockey season, and by evening's end they were burdened by another loss on their ledger.

The Evansville IceMen, who needed victory every bit as badly as their struggling hosts, racked four second-period goals and used Cody Reichard's 38 saves for a 4-2 ECHL victory at Sullivan Arena.

The game marked the quarter-pole (18 games) of the 72-game regular season for the Aces and their position to this point is not flattering.

At 5-11-2, the Aces are sub-.500 at the quarter pole for the first time in their 13 ECHL seasons. They are not happy – unsurprising, given they are 1-9-1 in their last 11 games – and neither are their fans, some of whom booed and whistled derisively as they made for the exits. Alaska is 3-6-1 on home ice.

As if the Aces already didn't have enough problems, they made a last-minute goaltending change before pregame warm-ups. Designated starter Troy Redmann, who started 13 of the club's first 17 games and was slated to start again, couldn't go because of a wonky back, so rookie Steven Summerhays got the nod with little advance notice.

Evansville (5-9-0), meanwhile, got a second straight win from Reichard, the former Stockton masked man, which marks the first time the IceMen have won consecutive games this season. And not only did Evansville match its season-high in goals with four, it got them all in the second period, including the last three in a span of 5:03.

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And to think, the Aces led 1-0 at the first intermission courtesy of Tyler Maxwell's power-play strike on his former Stockton teammate, and owned an 11-4 edge in shots through 20 minutes.

"The first (period) is exactly how we want to play every period,'' Maxwell said.

Aces coach Rob Murray wanted even more out of his team, which opened a six-game homestand after a 1-4-1 road trip.

"We should have been bursting at the seams, and we weren't,'' he said.

Even so, a lead is a lead. But turnovers, an unsteady performance by Summerhays (17 saves), who was making his first start in two weeks, and ill-advised penalties combined to pierce the Aces.

Defenseman Garrett Haar's turnover to Summerhays left was gobbled up by Josh MacDonald, who circled the net and beat Summerhays with a back-hand wraparound at the left post for a 1-1 tie four minutes into the second period.

Still, Aces winger Justin Breton answered with his own wraparound five minutes later, scoring his team-leading eighth goal and restoring Alaska's lead at 2-1 after he swiped the puck from Chris Rumble behind the net.

Just 79 seconds later, though, Evansville's Ryan Penny scored on a long wrister off the rush for a 2-2 tie. And 31 seconds after that, Jordan Sims was left unattended near the right post and scored on the back door to furnish the IceMen their first lead, at 3-2. Three minutes later, Daultan Leveille cut across the top of the crease and steered Rumble's precise power-play pass home for his team-high seventh goal and a 4-2 lead.

"It was just one of those games where we had a five-minute lapse – some mental errors – and that comes back to bite you,'' Maxwell said.

And it squandered the Aces' 40-21 advantage in shots on goal.

With the loss, Alaska's winning percentage dropped to .333, second-worst on the 28-team circuit and better than only Norfolk (.289). Evansville, which entered the evening with the second-worst winning percentage, raised its to .357 and leaped past the Aces.

Maxwell said it is imperative the Aces work their way out of their slump by supporting one another.

"Everyone's been in slumps before, and had highs and lows,'' he said. "The thing that matters most is attitude.

"Just keep up the morale. Any play you can look to and give a guy a tap on the shin pads, you do that.''

Shuffling the deck

The Aces have been held to two or fewer goals in 11 of their 18 games, and in 11 of their last 13 games.

With eight goals in 18 games, Breton already has nearly matched his rookie totals of 10 goals in 50 games with the Aces last season.

Friday's announced crowd of 3,606 gives the Aces an average attendance of 3,715 through 10 home games. That's down 652 per game from last season's average of 4,367 and marks a loss of nearly 20 percent of attendance since 2013-14, when the Aces won the franchise's third Kelly Cup and averaged 4,619 fans per home game.

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

Evansville 0 4 0 -- 4

Aces 1 1 0 -- 2

First Period – 1, Aces, Maxwell 4 (Wrenn, Coffman), 9:18 (pp). Penalties – Penny, Evansville (elbowing), 9:02; Trebish, Evansville (roughing), 13:32; Wellar, Aces (cross-checking), 16:32; Evansville bench minor, served by Wideman (too many men), 19:10.

Second Period – 2, Evansville, MacDonald 3, 3:54; 3, Aces, Breton 8, 9:29; 4, Evansville, Penny (Lukin, Trebish), 10:48; 5, Evansville, Sims 1 (Moon, Dieude-Fauvel), 11:19; 6, Evansville, Leveille 7 (Rumble, Wideman), 15:51 (pp). Penalties – Breton, Aces (high-sticking), 14:34; Hunt, Aces, double-minor (holding, roughing), 20:00.

Third Period -- None. Penalties – Humphries, Evansville (high-sticking), 11:22; Wellar, Aces (roughing), 14:59.

Shots on goal – Evansville 4-10-7—21. Aces 11-15-14—40.

Power-play Opportunities – Evansville 1 of 5. Aces 1 of 4.

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Goalies – Evansville, Reichard, 2-0-0 (40 shots-38 saves). Aces, Summerhays, 1-4-0 (21-17).

A – 3,606. T – 2:27.

Referee – Peter Tarnaris. Linesmen – Scott Sivulich, Travis Jackson.

Doyle Woody

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

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