Two teams headed in opposite directions – the Colorado Eagles rising, the Alaska Aces falling – continued on their respective courses Wednesday night at Sullivan Arena.
Colorado's 4-3 victory in the opener of a regular season-ending, three-game ECHL series stretched its win streak to seven games and its point streak to nine games (8-0-1).
Alaska, meanwhile, suffered its fourth straight defeat despite making it interesting late – Marc-Andre Levesque and Janick Asselin scored power-play goals inside the last 50 seconds.
The Eagles (40-26-4) moved into a tie with Idaho for first place in the West Division with two games remaining in the regular season, and they already own the tie-breaker (non-shootout wins) over the Steelheads. Colorado improved to 15-3-2 in its last 20 games – the Eagles have bookended a three-game losing streak in mid-March with a eight-game point streak that prefaced that slight slump and their current nine-game point streak.
Injuries reduced Colorado to just 14 skaters, two below the ECHL maximum, and the Eagles played with two defensemen skating at forward. Among the missing for the Eagles was veteran center Trent Daavettila, the league's second-leading scorer, goal scorer Johnny Lazo and former Aces forward Curt Gogol.
The Aces (26-37-7) are guaranteed to finish last in the five-team West Division, an indignity they never suffered in their previous 12 seasons on the circuit. That's a low point for a franchise that until this season never endured a losing season and won three Kelly Cups in its first 11 ECHL seasons.
Alaska prior to last season had never missed the Kelly Cup playoffs, but has failed to qualify in two straight seasons.
And while we're talking transformations, the Eagles received one goal and one assist from winger Jesse Mychan who has turned from scrapper to scorer.
Mychan as an Eagles rookie two seasons ago led the ECHL in fighting majors (19) and was second in penalty minutes (262) while scoring 11 goals in 55 games. Mychan's first-period goal to open the scoring Wednesday was his 31st of the season, tying him with Cincinnati's Jack Downing for the league lead – this from a 6-foot-2, 200-pounder whose high for goals in two Western Hockey League seasons was 19.
Mychan remains familiar with penalty boxes. He has 169 penalty minutes this season. Still, his six fights this season rank only fifth on his own team, which leads the 28-team league in fighting majors.
Mychan's goal midway through the first period held through the opening 20 minutes, and the Eagles scored twice in a 20-second span early in the second period to pump their lead to 3-0 and chase Aces starting goaltender Lukas Hafner, who didn't receive sturdy defensive support.
Hafner faced just seven shots. Mychan beat him with a quick, low wrister from the inside of the left circle. Darryl Bootland pushed the lead to 2-0 with his power-play wrister from the slot and Tyler Fiddler beat him glove side from the right circle 20 seconds later after being left unchecked.
The Aces, who have scored just five goals in their four consecutive losses and have a pretty banged-up roster too, cut their deficit to 3-1 four minutes after Fiddler's strike. Defenseman Felix-Antoine Poulin joined the rush, took a pass from newcomer Kenny Babinski, cut in on Kris Lazaruk (31 saves) and roofed a backhand over Lazaruk's left shoulder.
Babinski's assist in his third pro game furnished the winger out of Ferris State (Michigan) his first point in the play-for-pay business.
Fiddler added a goal late in the third period before Levesque scored with 50 seconds left and Asselin followed with 15.7 seconds left after Mychan received a double-minor for high-sticking Ryan Tesink. Asselin's goal was his first as a pro.
Fiddler's backhand on a rebound was the only goal surrendered by Jacob DeSerres, who replaced Hafner and stopped 25 shots. But DeSerres got tagged with the loss because he gave up what turned out to the game-winner on Fiddler's third-period goal.
The series continues Friday and wraps Saturday.
Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr
Colorado 1 2 1 4
Aces 0 1 2 3
First Period – 1, Colorado, Mychan 31 (Boe, Ostrow), 9:19. Penalties – Kraemer, Colorado (elbowing), 5:08; Traversa, Aces (unsportsmanlike conduct), 10:07; Joe, Colorado (interference), 11:50; Zahn, Colorado (hooking), 14:22.
Second Period – 2, Colorado, Bootland 15 (Mychan, Ostrow), 4:36 (pp); 3, Colorado, Fiddler 5 (Kraemer, Nyren), 4:56; 4, Aces, Poulin 7 (Babinski, Tesink), 8:55. Penalties – Nyren, Colorado (tripping), :21; Perfetto, Aces (hooking), 3:54; Hunt, Aces (slashing), 6:16; Bootland, Colorado (hooking), 6:16; Mychan, Colorado (elbowing), 19:24.
Third Period – 5, Colorado, Fiddler 6 (Joe, Zahn), 16:31; 6, Aces, Levesque 2 (Sivak, Asselin), 19:10 (pp); 7, Aces, Asselin 1 (Breton, Traversa), 19:44 (pp). Penalties – Martell, Aces (unsportsmanlike conduct), 7:10; Fiddler, Colorado (tripping), 7:50; Breton, Aces (roughing), 12:45; Sivak, Aces (holding), 16:54; Mychan, Colorado, double-minor (high-sticking), 18:37.
Shots on goal – Colorado 4-14-15—33. Aces 10-14-10—34.
Power-play Opportunities – Colorado 1 of 5. Aces 2 of 8.
Goalies – Colorado, Lazaruk, 12-6-3 (34 shots-31 saves). Aces, Hafner, (7-4); DeSerres, enter 4:56 2nd period, 8-14-3 (26-25).
A – 3,442. T – 2:24.
Referee – Mike Sheehan. Linesmen – Steve Glines, Chad Colliander.