With prosperity came pain — the Alaska Aces won a hockey game Saturday night, but they have lost their two best defensemen to injury.
After twice losing leads, the Aces won a seven-round shootout to bag a 4-3 ECHL win over the Rapid City Rush in South Dakota.
But captain William Wrenn did not play Saturday after suffering an upper-body injury in Friday's 3-2 Aces loss to the Rush and rookie blueliner Mitch Jones in the first period Saturday suffered a lower-body injury that required him to be lifted onto a stretcher at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.
Wrenn, tied for second in scoring among ECHL defensemen, is a stalwart who plays in all situations. Jones has been a pleasant surprise after enduring an early-season injury, going 5-5—10 and racking an even rating for a sub-.500 team in 21 games.
The losses of those players muted Alaska's joy in winning the shootout, 3-2, on goals from Peter Sivak, newcomer defenseman Marc-Andre Levesque and center Ben Lake, who delivered the game-winner.
The Aces (20-26-5), fighting to beat long odds and gain a playoff position with 21 games left in the season, are two games into a season-long, nine-game road trip that continues Sunday against Rapid City.
Even with the win, the Aces remain in a difficult position. They are tied for 11th in the Western Conference, and only the top eight teams make the playoffs. Alaska is nine points out of a playoff spot.
Sivak, a veteran winger, had a hand in every Aces goal. He scored short-handed and furnished two assists to give him 10 multiple-point performances in 30 games since rejoining the club in a trade. Sivak was All-ECHL in 2014, when he helped lead the Aces to the third Kelly Cup in franchise history.
Alaska prevailed Saturday despite some dodgy penalty-killing — Rapid City (20-26-5) converted on 3 of 6 power-play chances, with Ray Misiak striking twice and James Melindy once. Cody Ferriero and Taylor Doherty assisted on all three Rush goals.
With Wrenn and Jones out, the Aces are down to five defensemen, one shy of the number of blueliners who usually dress for a game. And Alaska only has five because it earlier this week signed rookie Levesque after he finished his Canadian college career.
Alaska earned a 1-0 lead on defenseman Felix-Antoine Poulin's first-period, power-play goal, which came on a third-chance opportunity after Sivak and Garrett Hunt were denied by Sam Marrotta (32 saves). Rapid City forged a 1-1 tie later in the period on the first of Misiak's two man-advantage goals and took a 2-1 lead seven minutes on Misiak's second strike.
But Sivak and Stephen Perfetto scored 72 seconds apart shortly after that — each assisted on the other's goal — to give Alaska its second lead at 3-2. That lead vanished on Melindy's power-play goal late in the second period.
Aces goaltender Jacob DeSerres stopped 19 shots in his first start for the club and prevailed in the shootout.
After Sunday's finale of the three-game series in South Dakota, the Aces play three games at Colorado and three at Idaho.
Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com, check out his blog at adn.com/hockeyblog and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr
Aces win shootout, 3-2, in 7 rounds
Aces 1 2 0 1 — 4
Rapid City 1 2 0 0 — 3
First Period — 1, Aces, Poulin 6 (Hunt, Sivak), 14:28 (pp); 2, Rapid City, Misiak 4 (Doherty, Ferriero), 15:58 (pp). Penalties ?— Day Chief, Rapid City (tripping), 11:20; Ferriero, Rapid City (high-sticking), 13:13; Harlow, Aces (high-sticking), 14:44; Tesink, Aces (kneeing), 18:21.
Second Period — 3, Rapid City, Misiak 5 (Ferriero, Sparks), 7:24 (pp); 4, Aces, Sivak 14 (Perfetto, Vandane), 10:07 (sh); 5, Aces, Perfetto 10 (Sivak, Breton), 11:19; 6, Rapid City, Melindy 3 (Doherty, Ferriero), 15:48 (pp). Penalties — Lake, Aces (boarding), 1:31; Traversa, Aces (slashing), 6:19; O'Donoghue, Rapid City (roughing), 8:06; Lake, Aces, double-minor (roughing), 8:06; Hunt, Aces (holding), 15:37.
Third Period — None. Penalties — Kotolansky, Rapid City (cross-checking), 2:11; Melindy, Rapid City (slashing), 11:22.
Overtime — None. Penalties — Rapid City, served by Day Chief (too many men), 4:56.
Shootout — Aces 3 (Sivak G, Breton NG, Perfetto NG, Poulin NG, Levesque G, Valcourt NG, Lake G), Rapid City (Sparks NG, Ferriero G, Pommels NG, Gauthir NG, Stefanovich G, Day Chief NG, Melindy NG).
Shots on goal — Aces 14-11-9-1—35. Rapid City 5-11-5-1—22.
Power-play Opportunities — Aces 1 of 5. Rapid City 3 of 6.
Goalies — Aces, DeSerres, (2-6-1) (22 shots-19 saves). Rapid City, Marotta, (3-9-0) (35-32).
A — 4,600 (5,199). T — 2:45.
Referee — Peter Tanaris. Linesmen — Dylan Peper, Cade Bloomenrader.