Saddled with a six-game winless streak overall and a 10-game winless streak on home ice, the Alaska Aces were understandably fragile when their once-comfortable three-goal lead on the Rapid City Rush shriveled to one goal early in the third period Sunday afternoon.
"The way we've been going, it was like, 'Oh, boy, here we go again,' " said Aces winger Tyler Shattock. "So, it was nice to respond so fast.''
Just 16 seconds after Rush winger Hunter Fejes of Anchorage struck, Shattock took a pass from Danny Moynihan and scored his second goal of the game to close the scoring and spearhead the Aces to a 4-2 ECHL victory at Sullivan Arena.
"Haven't seen that enough lately,'' said Aces coach Rob Murray. "When you strike right back after the other team scores, it's a dagger.''
During a matinee in which Alaska defenseman Chase Van Allen of Anchorage was the best player on the ice, Moynihan furnished three assists and Kevin Carr repelled 30 shots, the Aces momentarily regained equilibrium.
The Aces (31-25-7) recouped the lead in the chase for the last playoff position in the Mountain Division. They lead the Missouri Mavericks by two points and the Utah Grizzlies by three points. Alaska and Utah have six games remaining, and Missouri has seven games left.
Rapid City (25-34-8), which won the first two games of the series, was eliminated from playoff contention.
Sunday's victory snapped the Aces' 0-4-2 skid overall and their franchise-record 0-8-2 funk on home ice.
It certainly helped that they played from ahead for a change. First-period goals from Brad Navin and Shattock furnished a 2-0 cushion, and Van Allen's first pro goal, 19 seconds into the second period, delivered a 3-0 lead.
Van Allen, the former UAA defenseman, scored his first play-for-pay goal in his 11th game, and less than 24 hours after he thought he should have scored two goals in a 5-2 loss to the Rush. He broke through when he sneaked down to the back door in the right circle, took a pass from center Tim Coffman, who had just taken half a lap around the offensive zone, and threaded a shot through Luke Siemen's pads.
"Thank God, finally,'' Van Allen said. "I didn't even know it went five-hole until I watched the replay. I wasn't even aiming. I was just throwing it on net.''
Van Allen added an assist for his first multiple-point game. He also fired a game-high and career-high six shots on goal, finished plus-2, functioned as a one-man breakout, made a slew of accurate breakout passes to kick-start the attack and did some strong penalty-killing. Still, the first thing he mentioned postgame was his turnover, which led to Fejes' goal.
Murray, who raved about Van Allen's "escapability,'' said he can live with an occasional mistake from the rookie blueliner.
"I'll take the good with the bad when he does all those things,'' Murray said.
Murray said Shattock played his best game for the Aces in the 30 games since he was acquired from Kalamazoo in a trade. Shattock's two-goal game was his first as an Ace, and he was a game-best plus-4, with five shots on goal.
Moynihan's third three-point game of the season, and 11th multiple-point game, made him the fourth Aces skater to hit the 50-point mark this season – he joined Stephen Perfetto (64 points), Coffman (63) and Peter Sivak (61).
Carr, who made his 14th consecutive start, was sharp from the outset.
And he finally received goal support, particularly early on, which has been lacking of late.
"It was good to get the lead and play from ahead,'' Shattock said. "We've been playing from behind for the last however many games.''
Shuffling the deck
The Aces own the first tiebreaker – non-shootout wins – over Missouri and Utah. Alaska has 30 non-shootout wins, and the Mavericks and Grizzlies each have 28.
The Aces outshot the Rush 42-32 Sunday and 137-76 in the three-game series. Alaska owned an 18-3 advantage in first-period shots Sunday and a 69-15 shot advantage in first periods in the series.
Rookie winger Fejes, with one goal and one assist, went 3-2—5 and plus-4 in the series.
Murray, who argued with fans after Saturday's game and briefly went into the stands, was not disciplined by the league.
The Aces are thin on the blue line. Ryan Trenz and Dax Lauwers have been out with lower-body injuries, and Mitch Jones missed Sunday's game after blocking two shots on a Rush 5-on-3 power play Saturday. Defenseman Matt Geurts on Sunday played his first game since Feb. 10.
Van Allen and defenseman Nolan Descoteaux logged a ton of ice time.
"I think I played more in that game than in a whole weekend (college) series,'' Van Allen said.
Siemens (38 saves) made the save of the series late in the second period when Coffman unleashed a shot toward a yawning net from point-blank range. Siemens reached back with his stick and got his blade solidly on Coffman's bid.
Erstwhile Aces winger Tim Wallace had a goal for Bridgeport of the American Hockey League in the Sound Tigers' 4-3 overtime loss at Lehigh Valley. That marked Wallace's first AHL goal since Jan. 26, 2013, when he skated for the Charlotte Checkers. The former NHLer has 94 goals in 377 career AHL regular-season games.
Also in the AHL, erstwhile Aces rookie goaltender Michael Garteig on Sunday stopped 31 shots for Utica in a 2-1 loss at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. The start was Garteig's first action in 15 days.
Rapid City 0 1 1 2
Aces 2 1 1 4
First Period – 1, Aces, Navin 9 (Moynihan, Van Allen), 14:18; 2, Aces, Shattock 13 (Laplante, Moynihan), 17:09. Penalties – Ortiz, Rapid City (interference), 12:11; Descoteaux, Aces (boarding), 17:51.
Second Period – 3, Aces, Van Allen 1 (Coffman, Sampair), :16; 4, Rapid City, Mastrodicasa 1 (Fejes, Rothstein), 12:48. Penalties – Geurts, Aces (hooking), 9:05; Wallin, Rapid City (tripping), 13:28; .
Third Period – 5, Rapid City, Fejes 17 (Cooper, Rothstein), 2:59; 6, Aces, Shattock 14 (Moynihan, Stewart), 3:15. Penalties — None.
Shots on goal – Rapid City 3-15-14—32. Aces 18-12-12—42.
Power-play Opportunities – Rapid City 0 of 2. Aces 0 of 2.
Goalies – Rapid City, Siemens, 1-1-0 (42 shots-38 saves). Aces, Carr, 17-19-5 (32-30).
A – 3,435 (6,399). T – 2:20.
Referee – Chris Pontes. Linesmen – Josh Ellis, Dominick Eubank.