Alaska Aces Hockey

The Alaska Aces are on a roll, and here are the greatest streaks in franchise history.

You've got to hand it to the Alaska Aces — their recent six-game winning streak and current eight-game point streak (6-0-2) are both impressive.

But when you're a franchise that has won three Kelly Cups and appeared in seven conference finals in the previous 13 seasons, you've got to do a lot to stand out historically. Which in a nice way of saying that the recent six-game winning streak merely matched the 10th-best in franchise history — the Aces have delivered six-game winning streaks eight times (and that's not counting streaks that hit six games and went longer) and the current eight-game point streak doesn't even crack the Top 12 in franchise history.

So, let's go over some of the long streaks in Aces' history:

Longest winning streak — 11 games, 2005-06.

Longest point streak — 16 games (15-0-1), 2005-06.

Longest home winning streak: 14 games, 2006-07.

Longest home point streak: 21 games (20-0-1), 2005-06.

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Longest road winning streak: 6 games, three times — 2012-13, 2007-08, 2005-06.

Longest road point streak: 12 games (7-0-5), 2011-12.

Yeah, might have dawned on you that 2005-06 team was pretty good. Well, it won the Kelly Cup after going a franchise-record 53-12-7 (113 points) in the regular season. The Aces' points (113) and winning percentage (.785) that season both rank fourth all-time in ECHL history. And I had forgotten the Aces won the Brabham Cup as regular-season champs that season by a mere on point because Las Vegas went 53-13-6 (112 points).

The Aces that 2005-06 season went 4-2-1 against Las Vegas in the regular season and beat the Wranglers in six games in the second round of the playoffs (Cam Keith's goal in triple OT secured the 4-3 clincher in a game that ended after midnight inside Sullivan Arena — and, yes, why Cam did get a lot of free beverages out of that goal, for years).

Both the Aces' coach (Davis Payne) and Wranglers' coach (Glen Gulutzan) went on to become NHL head coaches — Payne with the St. Louis Blues and Gulutzan for the Dallas Stars and, currently, the Calgary Flames. Payne is currently an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Kings.

While we're at it, the 2012-13 Aces team that lost to Stockton in six games in the second round of the playoffs under current coach Rob Murray put up some streaks on the way to a 49-15-8 regular season that bagged 106 points, second-most in franchise history: A nine-game winning streak, a seven-game winning streak, two six-game winning streaks, two eight-game home winning streaks, a six-game road winning streak, a five-game road winning streak, and point streaks of 13 games, 12 games and nine games.

 

Doyle Woody

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

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