Extra-attacker scenarios often furnish frantic final seconds for the goaltender whose hockey team is outnumbered, and that was the situation Kevin Carr of the Alaska Aces faced in Saturday night.
"It was chaos,'' said the third-year pro.
But Carr persevered, making a spectacular save with his right hand after his stick was knocked from his grasp and delivering 42 denials for a 2-0 ECHL over Utah that marked his first shutout this season.
With Grizzlies masked man Ryan Faragher on the bench in favor of an extra attacker, Utah's Erik Bradford enjoyed a glorious chance from the slot to crack Carr's shutout bid. Carr rebuffed Bradford's bid with his palm to preserve his seventh career shutout.
"It went (off) my palm and up in the air, and I batted it away,'' Carr explained.
With six minutes left and Alaska protecting a 2-0 lead, Carr also got just enough of his shoulder on Mathieu Aubin's wrister from the slot to steer it off the right post.
After surrendering a power-play goal on the first shot he faced in Friday's 5-1 win over Utah, Carr stopped the next 28 shots. So, in his last 113 minutes, 59 seconds, he has stopped 70 consecutive shots. And in the course of two games, he has lifted his season save percentage to .928 from .899.
Carr's excellence was particularly important Saturday because his teammates were far from crisp. They struggled to make passes and turned over the puck frequently, yet won their fourth straight game to improve to 10-4-1, even as they were outshot 42-20.
"We weren't very good at all, no way around it,'' said center Tim Coffman. "Carrsy won that game for us.''
That's hockey, Carr said. In a 72-game regular season, he said, everyone has the odd off-night, so a goalie sometimes buoys his team, and forwards and defensemen sometimes buoy the goalie.
"There's going to be games when I'm not good, and I need them,'' Carr said.
[Secondary scoring triggered Alaska's 5-1 win Friday]
Time and again Saturday, Carr absorbed shots to his upper body and left rebounds near his skates that he easily covered to get a whistle. He and goaltending coach Gerald Coleman said they have addressed such rebound control in practices.
"We've been working on posture and keeping my shoulders down to keep the puck in front of me,'' Carr said.
Utah (7-9-2) pressed the Aces throughout, but had its winless streak extended to five games (0-4-1). The Grizzlies are in the midst of an exhausting stretch —
Saturday marked their third game in four nights, with a travel day on Thanksgiving mixed in. They'll wrap their fourth game in five days with Sunday's series finale, a 3:05 p.m. matinee, against the Aces.
Defenseman Ryan Trenz gave the Aces a 1-0 lead on the power play two minutes into the second period to rescue a man-advantage opportunity that prior to his slapper from the center point was a mess. The Aces committed two turnovers and surrendered three shots before Tommy Olczyk hit Trenz with a pass and he cranked a shot through Tyler Ruegsegger's screen between the circles and past Faragher's stick side.
That lead held until more than eight minutes into the third period, when Aces winger Tim Wallace sprung Coffman and Peter Sivak on a 2-on-1.
Coffman, carrying the puck down the left side, had it roll up his stick blade momentarily before he let it settle and shoveled a cross-ice pass to Sivak. Sivak snapped a one-timer off Faragher and in for his team-leading 11th goal and a 2-0 lead.
"I just had to make the play still,'' Coffman said of the rolling puck. "Stuff like that happens all the time, so you just make the play.''
Shuffling the deck
Coffman is sporting a right eye that is black, blue and purple — the damage came in games last week at Wichita. Coffman said he took a high stick to the face in one game, and that left him with a black eye. In the next game, he got slashed across the face and suffered cuts in his mouth and some loose teeth. Next shift, he took a slap shot to the side of his face — fortunately the puck hit him flat.
And, so, he looks like a hockey player.
"I couldn't catch a break in Wichita with my face,'' Coffman said.
Alaska's .700 winning percentage ranks fifth on the 28-team circuit.
Sivak's goal gave him a goal in three straight games and 4-3—7 totals in his four-game point streak. Sivak's 11 goals ties him for fourth in the ECHL.
Coffman's helper gives him six assists in his four-game point streak. And Wallace's assist on Sivak's goal gives him 4-4—8 totals in a four-game point streak.
Erstwhile Aces rookie goaltender Michael Garteig made his American Hockey League debut Saturday with 31 saves for the Utica Comets in a 4-1 loss at Toronto.
Aces center Stephen Perfetto, on loan to AHL San Antonio, was minus-1 with one shot and one penalty (tripping) in a 3-0 loss at Texas.
Carr's shutout gives the Aces two in 15 games this season — Garteig has one — after getting one shutout in 72 games last season.
Utah 0 0 0 — 0
Aces 0 1 1 — 2
First Period — None. Penalties — Lake, UAA (holding), 3:39; Eick, Utah (boarding), 7:13; Wallace, Aces (cross-checking), 7:40; Hunt, Aces, major (fighting), 15:57; McNally, Utah, major (fighting), 15:57.
Second Period — 1, Aces, Trenz 2 (Olczyk, Moynihan), 2:02 (pp). Penalties — Banwell, Utah (slashing), :55; Geurts, Aces (tripping), 4:52; Sivak, Aces (hooking), 18:00; Puskar, Utah (charging), 19:32.
Third Period — 2, Aces, Sivak 11 (Coffman, Wallace), 8:26. Penalties — Moynihan, Aces (holding), 2:18; Walsh, Utah (diving), 2:18; Trenz, Aces (tripping), 2:23.
Shots on goal — Utah 11-16-15—42. Aces 5-7-8—20.
Power-play Opportunities — Utah 0 of 5. Aces 1 of 3.
Goalies — Utah, Faragher, 6-5-1 (20 shots-18 saves). Aces, Carr, 3-3-1 (42-42).
A — 4,103 (6,399). T — 2:41.
Referee — Corey Chipperfield. Linesmen — Chad Colliander, Josh Ellis.