On Stars Wars Night at Sullivan Arena, two teams proved Saturday that in hockey, as in theatrical, futuristic battles in space, you are unwise to lower your defenses.
Alaska Aces 8, Toledo Walleye 6.
As fantastic as the quality of play was in Toledo's 4-3 comeback victory in a 10-round shootout Friday in the opener of the three-game series, Saturday's affair did not possess many virtues beyond the entertainment value of an abundance of goals.
Between 14 goals, 36 minor penalties, a wide swath of hurt feelings and extended intermissions, the game dragged out for 2 hours, 59 minutes — longer, surely, than struggles between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance.
While characters dressed in Star Wars outfits — Stormtroopers, Darth Vader and such — cruised around Sullivan Arena and posed for pictures with fans in the announced crowd of 4,535 fans, it would be a stretch to say a good time was had by all.
The goaltenders, for instance, probably didn't think it was 60 minutes of A New Hope. That's because the notion of defense took a one-night hiatus, as if destroyed by the Death Star.
Not often does a goalie get dinged for six goals, like Aces masked man Kevin Carr did, and earn a victory — file that one under, never tell a hockey guy the odds. Still, Carr did plenty because, well, someone had to save the Aces' skins — he racked 41 saves and a sweet assist on the second of Peter Sivak's three goals.
Sivak, who also furnished an assist, delivered his fifth multiple-goal game of the season and 12th multiple-point game in just 21 matches, so he's all Jedi master. Not to put too fine a point on it, but his stick is his light saber, and it's lethal — Sivak leads the circuit with 19 goals in just 21 games.
Stephen Perfetto racked a goal and two assists for the Aces (13-4-4), and he owns six points in the series after returning from his first promotion to the American Hockey League. The force is strong with this one — Perfetto has put up 10-18—28 totals in just 15 games.
Alaska's Tim Wallace snapped his six-game goal drought and five-game point funk with a short-handed goal and two assists, all of which came inside the first seven minutes of the third period and gave the Aces a 7-2 cushion. Consider the former NHLer's re-emergence a Return of the Jedi.
As for Aces winger Justin Breton, well, the force awakened — he bagged two third-period goals that he badly needed. Breton led the club in goals last season with 23 in 66 games, yet his only goal in his first 18 games before Saturday was an empty-netter.
After Darth Vader dropped the ceremonial puck — and Aces captain Garet Hunt, who possesses an affinity for fighting much larger men who have poor attitudes and talk in intimidating voices, did not drop him — the Aces engineered a four-goal outburst in the first period. Still, Toledo (17-4-0), which had its league-high, nine-game winning streak snapped, cut its deficit to 4-2 by period's end with two strikes from its league-leading power play.
The Walleye, still trailing 4-2 late in the second period, enjoyed consecutive power plays, and it would be reasonable to think Aces coach Rob Murray and partisans inside the building did not have a good feeling about it. But the Aces killed those penalties, and during another penalty-kill early in the third period when Wallace swooped in for his shortie.
Though the Aces led 7-2 at that point, you couldn't have blamed Carr if he told him teammates such a large cushion was a trap.
Toledo, after all, reeled off four goals after that, wrapping them around Sivak's hat-trick goal and even scoring one right at the buzzer.
Yet the Aces extended their point streak to 10 games (7-0-3), which matches the eighth-longest in the franchise's 14 seasons.
And, who knows? Maybe Saturday's game was a Rogue One.
Perhaps Sunday's series-closing matinee will be a return to the quality of Friday's game.
Maybe two empires — Toledo still owns the league's best record and Alaska the third-best — will strike back.
Toledo 2 0 4 6
Aces 4 0 4 8
First Period – 1, Aces, Perfetto 10 (Sivak, Lauwers), :31; 2, Aces, Lake 3 (Levesque, Ruegsegger), 5:00; 3, Aces, Sivak 17 (Carr), 12:01 (pp); 4, Aces, Sivak 18 (Trenz, Perfetto), 14:41; 5, Toledo, Jenks 11 (MacDonald, Berschbach), 16:10 (pp); 6, Toledo, Sikura 10 (Zajac, Tyson Spink), 19:39 (pp). Penalties – Toledo bench minor, served by Globke (too many men), 2:06; Tyson Spink, Toledo (slashing), 11:18; Aces bench minor, served by Coffman (too many men), 15:21; Hunt, Aces (roughing), 18:13; MacDonald, Toledo (unsportsmanlike conduct), 18:13; Lauwers, Aces (interference), 18:36.
Second Period — None. Penalties – Stewart, Aces (cross-checking), 6:01; Tylor Spink, Toledo (slashing), 6:01; Hunt, Aces (slashing), 13:12; Moynihan, Aces (hooking), 15:52.
Third Period – 7, Aces, Wallace 7, 1:03 (sh); 8, Aces, Breton 2 (Coffman, Wallace), 4:22; 9, Aces, Breton 3 (Wallace, Coffman), 6:49; 10, Toledo, Czarnowczan 2 (Bereschbach, Jenks), 10:55; 11, Toledo, Spink 9 (); 12, Aces, Sivak 19 (Perfetto), 16:24; 13, Toledo, Rankin 10 (Zajac, Denis), 17:38; 14, Toledo, Zajac 4 (Jenks, Sikura), 19:59. Penalties – Ruegsegger, Aces (cross-checking), :17; Czarnowczan, Toledo (cross-checking), :17; Hunt, Aces (roughing), :17; Stewart, Aces (elbowing), 10:26; Perfetto, Aces (slashing), 10:51; Aces bench minor, served by Coffman (unsportsmanlike conduct), 12:12; MacDonald, Toledo (high-sticking), 12:30; Coffman, Aces (slashing), 18:37.
Shots on goal – Toledo 12-15-20—47. Aces 17-8-7—32.
Power-play Opportunities – Toledo 4 of 9. Aces 1-3.
Goalies – Toledo, Heeter, 8-1-0 (32 shots-24 saves). Aces, Carr, 6-3-3 (47-41).
A – 4,535 (6,399). T – 2:59.
Referee – Andrea Barone. Linesmen – Scott Sivulich, Travis Jackson.