Another night loaded with opportunity for the Alaska Aces, and another night of letting good fortune escape their grasp.
While the Aces slightly improved their playoff positioning in the ECHL's Mountain Division on Saturday night, they also blew a two-goal lead with nine minutes to go in regulation and lost 4-3 in a shootout to the Cincinnati Cyclones.
That loss pushed the Aces' overall winless streak to four games (0-2-2) and extended their franchise-worst winless streak on home ice at Sullivan Arena to eight games (0-6-2).
Alaska (30-23-10) sits fourth in the division — that's the last playoff spot — and owns a five-point lead over fifth-place Utah and a six-point lead over sixth-place Missouri. Alaska and Utah each have nine games left in the regular season, and Missouri has 10 games remaining.
Yet, leading 3-1 after Peter Sivak's strike midway through the third period, the Aces squandered a chance to push six points up on Utah and seven on Missouri, both of which lost earlier in the evening.
None of the three contenders for that final playoff spot are seizing opportunity. The Aces are 3-5-2 in their last 10 games and were swept by the Cyclones, who won 2-1 Wednesday and 2-1 Friday. Utah is 4-6-0 in its last 10 games and Missouri is 3-6-1.
"We lost three games by one goal,'' said Aces coach Rob Murray. "Tonight was obviously a different make-up of a game, especially up 3-1. We didn't get the saves we needed.''
Aces goaltender Kevin Carr, making his 11th straight start, allowed Eric Knodel's unscreened 55-foot, extra-attacker one-timer with 18.8 seconds left. That forged a 3-3 tie. The Cyclones won the shootout 1-0 on a goal from Nick Huard, who won the face-off against Danny Moynihan that quickly led to Shawn O'Donnell's dish to Knodel at the right point on the equalizer.
Cincinnati (35-26-4), which split a two-game series in Idaho before heading to Alaska, went 4-1-0 on its five-game road trip and strengthened its playoff position in the South Division.
"It's a long way from Cincinnati and we're not the best road team stat-wise (14-18-0),'' Huard said. "We knew it was going to be hard up here. The boys stuck together.''
Alaska's two-goal, third-period cushion began to unravel shortly after Sivak, in his second game back after missing 19 games with a lower-body injury, racked his team-leading 33rd goal in 44 games. He roofed a wrister from the slot over the right shoulder of Cyclones goaltender Mark Visentin (30 saves), who played for the first time since Feb. 1, to generate a 3-1 lead.
But Aces winger Tim Wallace soon was penalized for hooking and Cyclones defenseman Martin Lefebvre was credited with the power-play goal that cut Alaska's lead to 3-2.
Then, with Visentin on the bench for an extra attacker, the Cyclones delivered Knodel's game-tying goal, which was a springboard to their first win this season in the 23 games they have trailed heading into the third period.
Alaska's loss dropped it to 14-12-4 on home ice.
And the shootout is like poison to the Aces. They're a league-worst 1-7 in the skills competition Murray calls a crapshoot.
"Whole season,'' Sivak said, shaking his head.
The Aces never seemed in trouble until the late stages of the game.
"We controlled the play throughout the game,'' Murray said.
A first-period goal from Brad Navin, who beat Visentin from a tough angle, and a second-period, power-play laser from Nolan Descoteaux that zipped past Visentin's left ear furnished the Aces a 2-0 lead. Yet O'Donnell quickly closed the gap to 2-1, striking four minutes after Descoteaux's goal.
Visentin kept his club in the game in the second period, when Alaska could have buried Cincinnati. Visentin flashed his left pad to snuff Sivak's bid, stopped Tim Coffman from point-blank range, fought off Wallace's power-play redirection and got his left pad on Charlie Sampair's bid on the back door.
Shuffling the deck
Erstwhile Aces center Stephen Perfetto racked his first American Hockey League goal Friday night when he scored for the Milwaukee Admirals in a 4-1 loss at Iowa. Perfetto owns 1-2—3 totals in four games with Milwaukee.
Coffman (two assists) has furnished at least one point in 14 of the last 16 games. His scoring totals of 26-34—60 in 63 games mark career highs in all four categories.
Descoteaux's 10 goals in 51 games leads Aces defensemen.
Cincinnati wins shootout 1-0
Cincinnati 0 1 2 1 — 4
Aces 1 1 1 0 — 3
First Period — 1, Aces, Navin 8 (Hunt), 6:08. Penalties — None.
Second Period — 2, Aces, Descoteaux 10 (Coffman, Wallace), 11:43 (pp); 3, Cincinnati, O'Donnell 13 (Rissling, Misuraca), 15:44. Penalties — Rissling, Cincinnati (high-sticking), 2:09; Coffman, Aces (holding), 8:09; Hunt, Aces, major (fighting), 10:35; Minella, Cincinnati, minor-major, served by Nowakowski (instigator-fighting), 10:35.
Third Period — 4, Sivak 33 (Coffman, Laplante), 10:52; 5, Cincinnati, Lefebvre 2 (Huard, Knodel), 13:00 (pp); 6, Cincinnati, Knodel 7 (O'Donnell, Huard), 19:41 (ea). Penalties — Huard, Cincinnati (holding), 2:47; Sivak, Aces (holding the stick), 3:28; Wallace, Aces (hooking), 12:16.
Overtime — None. Penalties – Wallace, Aces (high-sticking), 2:14.
Shootout — Cincinnati 1 (Walsh NG, Huard G), Aces 0 (Lake NG, Sivak NG, Wallace NG).
Shots on goal — Cincinnati 8-6-10-5—29. Aces 9-16-7-1—33.
Power-play Opportunities — Cincinnati 1 of 4. Aces 1 of 4.
Goalies — Cincinnati, Visentin, 10-10-1 (33 shots-30 saves). Aces, Carr, 16-18-4 (29-26).
A — 4,821 (6,399). T — 2:40.
Referee — Lucas Martin. Linesmen — Josh Ellis, Dominick Eubank.