Sports

Hafner's bounce-back gem sparks Aces' 2-0 win

Wednesday night, after Lukas Hafner surrendered three goals on just seven shots and got the hook, sleep did not come easy for the Alaska Aces' rookie goaltender.

He replayed the goals he gave up in a loss to the Colorado Eagles. The first one leaked through him, so that wasn't good. The third one came on a breakaway, sure, yet while Hafner is aggressive by nature in goal, he thought he was positioned too far back in his net on that occasion.

"Obviously, giving up three goals on seven shots is never good,'' Hafner said. "I don't care what kind of goal it was – as a goalie, I have to make at least one of those saves. I felt like I let the team down.''

Friday night, the 24-year-old fresh out of Western Michigan University made mighty amends. He stopped 34 shots to bag his first pro shutout and deliver a 2-0 victory over the Eagles before an announced crowd of 5,461 at Sullivan Arena.

The shutout in Alaska's penultimate game of the 72-game ECHL regular season was the first by an Aces masked man this season.

"He had to make some big saves,'' said Aces veteran defenseman Patrick Wellar. "I'm really happy we played well for a goaltender and I'm really happy he played so well. He earned that.''

The Aces (27-37-7) snapped their four-game losing streak, and they also halted the Eagles' (40-27-4), seven-game winning streak and nine-game point streak (8-0-1).

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Alaska also damaged Colorado's bid to win the West Division crown. The Eagles trail the Idaho Steelheads by two points entering Saturday, the final night of the regular season. To win the division, Colorado, which owns the tie-breaker on Idaho, must beat the Aces and hope the Missouri Mavericks, the Brabham Cup titlists as regular-season champions, beat the host Steelheads in regulation.

Hafner, in his fourth start for the Aces, did not flourish by dint of an easy night in the blue paint. The Eagles, who entered the evening tied for third on the circuit in goals, did not make it easy – they didn't often hit him in the chest with shots that translate into easy saves.

Hafner in the opening minute of the second period shrugged off Tyler Fiddler's bomb. He denied Darryl Bootland from point-blank range. He got a piece of his glove on Kyle Kraemer's short-handed bid and moments later got his shoulder on Fiddler's short-handed blast.

In the third period, Hafner stopped Derek Rodwell's shovel job at the top of the crease and stopped Jake Marto's semi-breakaway coming out of the penalty box. With Colorado goalie Clarke Saunders (26 saves) on the bench for an extra attacker in the last two minutes, Hafner gloved Fiddler's shot from the center point. He gloved Kraemer's one-timer from atop the right circle with 22.7 seconds left, even after Kraemer's shot ricocheted off the stick of Aces winger Peter Sivak and changed direction.

"It's about being a competitor and being someone the team can count on,'' Hafner said.

Aces coach Rob Murray finally glimpsed the kind of goaltending he coveted throughout this season in which his club will have a losing record for the first time in the franchise's 13 seasons and miss the playoffs for the second straight year.

"He made some good saves,'' Murray said. "Not ESPN highlight-reel saves, but good saves. That's what you need.''

Aces defenseman Felix-Antoine Poulin finally cracked a scoreless game slightly more than halfway through when he scored on a face-off play. Center Ryan Tesink won the draw on right wing and winger Justin Breton nudged the puck back to Poulin at the right point. Poulin walked the blue line toward center ice to find a shooting lane and unleashed a wrister that eluded Saunders on the glove side as Tesink drove the net to create traffic.

Alaska's 1-0 lead held until midway through the third period, when Wellar broke up a play at the Aces' line. That sprung Peter Sivak with the puck on a 3-on-1 with linemates Stephen Perfetto and Alec Hajdukovich.

Sivak took care of the rest. He beat Saunders to the blocker side with a quickly-released snap shot from the slot for his 21st goal of the season, 100th of his ECHL career and a 2-0 lead. That gave the Aces and Hafner some breathing room.

"You can exhale a little bit,'' Hafner said.

And after struggling to fall asleep Wednesday night – "You have to let it sting a little bit,'' Hafner said – he expected a more restful night Friday.

"Now I can sleep easier,'' he said.

Shuffling the deck

The Aces' first shutout of the season came one night before their long-time emergency goaltender from Anchorage gets his first career start in pro hockey.

Your move, Jeff Barney.

Breton and Fiddler each fired a game-high seven shots on goal.

The Eagles got center Trent Daavettila, the league's second-leading scorer and an All-ECHL First-Team selection, back in the lineup. Ditto for standout defenseman Collin Bowman, who owns 29-45—74 totals in 95 regular-season games for the Eagles the last two seasons.

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The announced crowd of 5,461 was the Aces' second-largest in 35 home dates this season. Alaska drew an announced crowd of 6,166 for a 3-2 loss to Utah on Nov. 7. Saturday's crowd for "Jeff Barney Night'' is expected to draw the biggest crowd of the season.

Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr

Colorado 0 0 0 0

Aces 0 1 1 2

First Period -- None. Penalties – Ringrose, Colorado (slashing), 4:04.

Second Period – 1, Aces, Poulin 8 (Breton, Tesink), 11:02. Penalties – Wellar, Aces (hooking), 2:52; Hunt, Aces (roughing), 6:54; Zahn, Colorado (roughing), 6:54; Aces bench minor, served by Deluca (too many men), 7:43; Zimmerman, Colorado (roughing), 16:11.

Third Period – 2, Aces, Sivak 21 (Wellar), 11:31. Penalties – Hunt, Aces, double minor-misconduct (roughing), 8:36; Bootland, Colorado, double minor-misconduct (roughing), 8:36; Marto, Colorado (roughing), 8:36.

Shots on goal – Colorado 6-16-12—34. Aces 10-10-8—28.

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Power-play Opportunities – Colorado 0 of 2. Aces 0 of 3.

Goalies – Colorado, Saunders, 14-5-0 (28 shots-26 saves). Aces, Hafner, 2-2-0 (34-34).

A – 5,461. T – 2:19.

Referee – Mike Sheehan. Linesmen – Scott Sivulich, Josh Ellis.

Doyle Woody

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

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