After a moribund two periods Friday night, the Alaska Aces staged a three-goal, third-period comeback to get to overtime against the surging and undermanned Utah Grizzlies, but could not score on a power play in the extra five minutes.
Then came the shootout — and that's hockey hell for the Aces.
The Grizzlies won the shootout at Sullivan Arena to seize a 4-3 victory and drop the Aces to 1-6 in the skills competition.
Alaska's six shootout losses are the most on the 27-team ECHL circuit.
Still, by gaining one point in the standings, the Aces (25-15-7) moved into a third-place tie with Idaho at 57 points in the Mountain Division, where only the top four finishers qualify for the Kelly Cup playoffs. Utah (25-20-4) earned four points in the three-game series, and 10 of 12 possible points on its six-game road trip that wrapped Friday, and sits at 54 points. Alaska owns two games in hand on both Idaho and Utah.
Just more than one month ago, Utah trailed Alaska by 14 points.
The Grizzlies began the game with 14 skaters, two shy of the ECHL maximum, because of injuries. At one point in the third period, because of one game misconduct, one misconduct and two minor penalties, Utah was down to 10 available skaters.
Still, the Grizzlies rolled to a 3-0 lead, thanks in large part to Colin Martin, who scored two goals and furnished the screen that aided Brad Navin's goal.
The Aces played their fifth straight game without ECHL-leading goal scorer Peter Sivak, who is out with a lower-body injury.
Alaska stormed back on Tyler Shattock's power-play strike, Nolan Descoteaux's drive from the high slot and Danny Moynihan's roofed backhander after he stole the puck from Utah's Austen Brassard. Stephen Perfetto assisted on the Aces' first two goals.
But Utah and goaltender Kevin Boyle (33 saves) weathered Alaska's power play in overtime to send the game to a shootout.
Cam Reid and Mathieu Aubin scored in the first two rounds for Utah, Reid on a high backhander past Michael Garteig and Aubin's low, glove-side wrister. Ben Lake lost the puck as he approached Boyle in the first round, but defenseman Marc-Andre Levesque scored when he fired a shot that Boyle stopped between his pads only to slide back over his goal line.
Boyle gloved Moynihan's backhander to win it.
Garteig made 31 saves and was particularly sharp in the first period, when the Grizzlies outshot the Aces 17-5 but could only gain a 1-0 lead.
The game took place on the Aces' Hall of Fame Night, when the club inducted former coach Davis Payne, former goaltenders Matt Underhill and Chris Beckford-Tseu, and former center Vlade Novak. All four of those men were principals in the Aces' drive to the 2006 Kelly Cup, the first of three in franchise history.
Utah wins shootout 2-1 in 3 rounds
Utah 1 2 0 1 — 4
Aces 0 0 3 0 — 3
First Period — 1, Utah, Navin 5, 9:35. Penalties — Lake, Aces (boarding), 1:54; Higby, Utah (holding), 10:51; Reid, Utah (tripping), 19:18.
Second Period — 2, Utah, Martin 12 (Higby, Cuddemi), 3:56; 3, Utah, Martin 13 (Cuddemi, Reid), 15:17. Penalties — Brassard, Utah (goaltender interference), 7:18; Hunt, Aces, minor-major (removing helmet, fighting), 9:29; Howe, Utah, minor-major (removing helmet, fighting), 9:29; Laplante, Aces, major-game misconduct (fighting), 20:00; Levesque, Aces, double minor-misconduct (roughing), 20:00; Wallace, Aces (roughing), 20:00; Pelech, Utah, major-game misconduct (fighting), 20:00; Nemcik, Utah, double minor-misconduct (roughing), 20:00.
Third Period — 4, Aces, Shattock 9 (Tarasuk, Perfetto), 5:56 (pp); 5, Aces, Descoteaux 7 (Moynihan, Perfetto), 9:07; 6, Aces, Moynihan 14, 16:28. Penalties — Pietroniro, Utah (tripping), 5:46; Puskar, Utah (slashing), 8:52; Wallace, Aces (slashing), 8:58; Shattock, Aces, double-minor, served by Coffman (charging, roughing), 10:33; Martin, Utah (roughing), 10:33; Jones, Aces (roughing), 10:33; Navin, Utah (roughing), 10:33; Navin, Utah (cross-checking), 14:23.
Overtime — None. Penalties — Cuddemi, Utah (hooking), :15.
Shootout — Utah 2 (Reid G, Aubin G), Aces 1 (Lake NG, Levesque G, Moynihan NG).
Shots on goal — Utah 17-7-8-2—34. Aces 5-14-12-5—36.
Power-play Opportunities — Utah 0 of 4. Aces 1 of 7.
Goalies — Utah, Boyle, 4-4-1 (36 shots-33 saves). Aces, Garteig, 10-5-2 (34-31).
A — 3,622 (6,399). T — 3:02.
Referee — Jeremy Tufts. Linesmen — Scott Sivulich, Dominick Eubank.