Lack of discipline, abundant turnovers and poor decision-making forge a hat-trick recipe for rink ruin, and the Alaska Aces have absorbed enough damage to confirm it.
That combination is especially sketchy against a streaking team like the Colorado Eagles, who thumped the Aces 6-2 at Sullivan Arena on Saturday night to run their winning streak to 11 games.
That streak is tops in the ECHL this season and the longest in Colorado's six seasons on the circuit.
The Aces, meanwhile, are mired in a season-worst, four-game winless streak (0-3-1).
The Eagles dropped four power-play goals on the Aces, who they beat 4-3 Friday, and enjoyed nine power-play opportunities, a feast for a club with the league's third-best power play. Colorado also savored a staggering amount of odd-man rushes. Just past the game's halfway point Saturday — Colorado led 3-0 at the time — the Eagles had generated five power plays, two breakaways, a 4 on 2 rush, a 3 on 2 rush, a 3 on 1 short-handed rush and a 2 on 1 short-handed rush.
The Aces afforded the Eagles five power-play chances in the first period alone.
"We're just killing ourselves with penalties,'' said Aces center Tim Coffman. "Nine power plays in a game, that's a period. Now we only have 40 minutes to start to do stuff.
"It starts with discipline. That will fix a lot of things. Look at a lot of our top players — they're on the power play and they kill penalties. Now they're tired, and mistakes happen when your fatigued.''
Coach Rob Murray took responsibility for a 5-on-3 power-play goal Colorado's Matt Register scored to open the Eagles' goal-fest. The Aces already were down a man when Murray was dinged with a bench minor for unsportsmanlike conduct. Register's goal also came courtesy of blown coverages.
The Aces trailed 5-0 late in the second period — Colorado's Jackson Houck had already delivered a hat trick by then — before they got on the board on Yan-Pavel Laplante's short-handed breakaway. He scored on a backhander after chasing down Charlie Sampair's excellent aerial pass.
By then, Aces starting goaltender Kevin Carr (four goals on 23 shots) was gone in favor of Michael Garteig. Consider that a mercy pull on Murray's part. Had not Carr been reasonably sharp before he was pulled, Colorado's lead easily could have been 6-0 or more.
In any event, the Aces struggled to get cleanly out of their zone, and turnovers plagued them. That's a difficult lot against a team as explosive as the Eagles.
Coffman's goal early in the third period cut Colorado's lead to 5-2, but former Aces goaltender Lukas Hafner (41 saves) kept them from chipping away for more. And Shawn St-Amant's second goal of the game made the last five minutes mere bookkeeping.
"I knew I had to be sharp,'' Hafner said. "After they scored their second one, if they get another one soon, it's a game.''
Hafner, who was 3-0-2 for Alaska and has won both his starts for Colorado, was released by Aces because they had a strong tandem in Carr and Garteig. Hafner briefly returned to the Southern Professional Hockey League before the Eagles signed him.
"I was in five states in five days, lugged a lot of miles,'' Hafner said. "It's been an adventure.''
The Aces' situation is complicated, off ice and on. They learned Friday that the future of the franchise is uncertain — clarity could come in the next handful of days. And the absence of league-leading goal scorer Peter Sivak is an on-ice worry. He's missed seven games with a lower-body injury and his unavailability has had a profound effect on the club's forward lines.
"No one has stepped up,'' Murray said.
Without Sivak, the Aces have gone from a team with two lines it can generally count on for goals to a one-line threat. Murray did some line juggling in the third period, moving top-line center Stephen Perfetto to wing with Coffman and winger Tim Wallace. That netted a quick goal from Coffman, and Murray suggested perhaps more line juggling will come.
Alaska's playoff positioning is getting tenuous. The Aces sit fourth in the Mountain Division, where the top four finishers make the playoffs. But the Aces lead Utah and Missouri, tied for fifth, by just two points, though they do have two games in hand on Utah and one on Missouri.
Alaska and Colorado wrap their three-game series with a matinee Sunday, and it would serve the Aces well to salvage something from the series, particularly given what awaits them.
The Aces soon depart on a season-long, three-week, 10-game road trip that takes them to New York, New Hampshire, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota and back to Colorado before returning home.
That stretch could have a dramatic impact on their playoff viability, and the last thing they need going into that trip from hell is a five-game winless streak.
Colorado 2 3 1 6
Aces 0 1 1 2
First Period – 1, Colorado, Register 12 (Grabowsky, Pierro-Zabotel), 10:23 (pp); 2, Colorado, Houck 4 (Pierro-Zabotel, Marto), 17:16 (pp). Penalties – Lake, Aces (holding), 4:06; Trenz, Aces (slashing), 8:36; Aces bench minor, served by Coffman (unsportsmanlike conduct), 9:45; Zahn, Colorado (roughing), 14:43; Lake, Aces, major (fighting), 17:08; Grabowsky, Colorado, major (fighting), 17:08; Hunt, Aces (roughing), 17:08; Laplante, Aces (roughing), 19:49.
Second Period – 3, Colorado, St-Amant 10 (Pierro-Zabotel, Jardine), 7:15; 4, Colorado, Houck 8 (Register, Holmberg), 14:46; 5, Colorado, Houck 9 (Salazar, Marto), 18:27 (pp); 6, Aces, Laplante 3 (Sampair), 19:16 (sh). Penalties – Jardine, Colorado (holding), 9:11; Colorado bench minor, served by Brooks (too many men), 10:29; Moynihan, Aces (high-sticking), 17:30; Levesque, Aces (roughing), 18:27.
Third Period – 7, Aces, Coffman 17 (Wallace, Moynihan), 1:25; 8, Colorado, St-Amant 11 (Salazar, Marto), 14:29 (pp). Penalties – Tarasuk, Aces (roughing), 4:46; Brooks, Colorado (hooking), 7:38; Descoteaux, Aces (hooking), 13:19; Sdao, Colorado (unsportsmanlike conduct), 17:29; Zimmerman, Colorado, minor-misconduct (roughing, unsportsmanlike conduct), 17:29.
Shots on goal – Colorado 10-17-9—36. Aces 15-10-18—43.
Power-play Opportunities – Colorado 4 of 9. Aces 0 of 6.
Goalies – Colorado, Hafner, 5-0-2 (43 shots-41 saves). Aces, Carr, (12-10-3) (23-19); Garteig, enter 14:46 2nd period (13-11).
A – 3,963 (6,399). T – 2:31.
Referee – Stephen Thomson. Linesmen – Scott Sivulich, Dominick Eubank.