In the expanded version of hockey standings, SOL stands for shootout loss.
The Alaska Aces surely look at that abbreviation and think of another phrase.
Despite owning three leads and enjoying a 3-on-0 rush in overtime Friday night, the Aces went to a shootout against the Missouri Mavericks, and that's never been a good thing for them this ECHL season.
Missouri's Kyle Schempp delivered the only goal of a skills contest that extended to five rounds to earn the Mavericks a 4-3 victory in Independence and sink the Aces to a league-worst 0-4 in shootouts.
And that made a hard-luck loser of Aces rookie goaltender Lukas Hafner, who has seen both his starts for the club go to a shootout and received zero support — literally, zero — from his teammates. Alaska's shooters went 0 for 5 on Missouri goaltender Villi Husso on Friday after going 0 for 3 against Idaho in a 3-2 shootout loss Hafner backstopped on Dec. 3.
So, Hafner, who stopped 28 shots in regulation and overtime Friday, and four of five shootout bids, rocks a 2.31 goals-against average and .925 save percentage, yet is saddled with an 0-0-2 record. In those two shootouts, Hafner rebuffed six of eight shooters, which is excellent work. Only problem: His teammates have been fed a bagel on their eight shootout attempts.
"These shootouts are getting old," Aces coach Rob Murray said by cellphone. "I don't know if (opposing) goalies are that good, or what. Every (Aces shooter) is straight down the middle and a shot to the pad. Nothing dynamic."
Still, the Aces (14-5-5) extended their road point streak to seven games (4-0-3), which is the fifth-longest in the franchise's 14 seasons and ties league-leading Toledo and Adirondack for the longest road point streak on the circuit this season.
Also, the Aces hit the one-third pole of the regular season Friday — 24 of 72 games — with 33 points in pocket. That's the fourth-best total to this point in franchise history, and matches the total of the 2013-14 edition of the Aces that won the Kelly Cup and surpasses the 2010-11 Cup-winning team, which owned 29 points at the one-third pole.
"I'd have to say I'm very pleased," Murray said. "We're in a position where we're playing very good hockey and we're competitive every night. Tonight may be the only game we let slip away.
"I know Sunday we gave up a 4-1 lead (in a 5-4 loss to Toledo), but the effort was there."
Friday, the Aces opened the scoring on Tommy Olcyzk's goal five minutes into the second period, but Darren Nowick answered for Missouri (10-11-4) with a rebound goal just 72 seconds later.
Danny Moynihan furnished the Aces a 2-1 lead on a deflection of Marc-Andre Levesque's shot-pass late in the second period. Yet Nowick answered just 30 seconds into the third period. Four minutes later, Aces winger Justin Breton delivered the third lead of the night. But Missouri's Sam Povorozniouk blew around Alaska's defense three minutes later to generate a 3-3 tie.
The Aces killed two Mavericks power plays in the last 10 minutes of regulation. Yet Husso snubbed league-leading scorer Peter Sivak on Alaska's 3-on-0 in overtime, and also rebuffed Steven Tarasuk's rebound shot.
Hafner saved the Aces when he took a Dane Fox (two assists) shot off the mask just before the buzzer ending overtime.
And while that save sent the Aces to another shootout, skills contests continued to pierce them.
Shuffling the deck
Sivak's two assists extended his point streak to five games — he owns 6-6–12 totals in that span. Linemate Stephen Perfetto set up Olczyk's goal to extend his point streak to eight games, with 6-10–16 totals in that stretch.
Tarasuk's helper on Breton's goal gives him a point in six of the last seven games. Breton's goal was his fourth in the last four games.
Moynihan snapped his five-game goal drought and moved into fourth among Aces goal scorers with eight. He trails Sivak (league-leading 21 goals), Perfetto (12) and Tim Coffman (9).
Missouri's head coach is John-Scott Dickson, who played 19 games for the Aces in 2005-06, when they won the first of their three Kelly Cups, before heading in-season to the University of New Brunswick.
Missouri wins shootout, 1-0, in five rounds
Aces 0 2 1 0 3
Missouri 0 1 2 1 4
First Period — None. Penalties –Young, Missouri (high-sticking), 5:53; Seckel, Missouri (tripping), 12:26.
Second Period — 1, Aces, Olczyk 4 (Perfetto, Sivak), 5:17; 2, Missouri, Nowick 7 (Fox, Correale), 6:29; 3, Aces, Moynihan 8 (Levesque, Sivak), 16:46. Penalties — Breton, Aces (hooking), 8:01.
Third Period — 4, Missouri, Nowick 8 (Fox, Obuchowski), :30; 5, Aces, Breton 5 (Hunt, Tarasuk), 4:50; 6, Missouri, Povorzaniouk 10 (Illo), 7:51. Penalties — Schempp, Missour, double-minor (roughing), 4:33; Lake, Aces, double-minor (roughing), 4:33; Hunt, Aces (hooking), 10:23; Trenz, Aces (tripping), 15:43.
Overtime — None. Penalties — None.
Shootout — Missouri 1 (Illo NG, Povorozniouk NG, Fox NG, Carzo NG, Schempp G), Aces 0 (Olczyk NG, Sivak NG, Perfetto NG, Levesque NG, Laplante NG).
Shots on goal — Aces 8-4-5-4—21. Missouri 8-13-6-4—31.
Power-play Opportunities — Aces 0 of 2. Missouri 0 of 3.
Goalies — Aces, Hafner, 0-0-2 (31 shots-28 saves). Missouri, Husso, 3-4-2 (21-18).
A – 5,145 (5,800). T – 2:47.
Referee — Stephen Reneau. Linesmen — Russ Coll, Tony Pizzutelli.