The Alaska Aces scored inside the last five minutes Sunday afternoon to avoid being fed a shutout, and that was the sum of their accomplishments.
Their 4-1 loss to the blistering Colorado Eagles, the new leaders in the ECHL's Mountain Division, marked the first time this hockey season the Aces have been swept in three-game home series, and it also further loosened their grip on playoff positioning.
The list of Aces' shortcomings proved a litany of letdowns.
Their five-game winless streak (0-4-1) at Sullivan Arena ties the longest home winless streak in the franchise's 14 seasons.
They surrendered the first goal of the game for the fifth straight game and eighth time in the last nine games. They are just 1-6-2 in that stretch, which follows the high-water mark of the season, when they were 12 games above. 500. They now sit seven games above .500 at 25-18-7.
The Aces' penalty-killing killed them for the second straight game. After surrendering four power-play strikes to Colorado's league-leading, man-advantage unit in a 6-2 loss Saturday, the Aces gave up goals on the Eagles' first two power plays Sunday.
"That was a bit of a dagger,'' said Aces center Ben Lake.
Trailing 3-0 early in the third period, with a delayed penalty coming against Colorado, the Aces washed out that man advantage by taking a bench minor for too many men. They repeated that transgression less than seven minutes later. Also, the Aces twice cut short power plays by taking a penalty when they enjoyed the man advantage.
And leading scorer Stephen Perfetto did not come out for the third period after having his head slammed to the ice by Colorado defenseman Sean Zimmerman (minor holding penalty) late in the second period. Perfetto was removed from the game as a precaution and said he's fine.
The Aces can ill afford to lose Perfetto, the first-line center, particularly in the absence of league-leading goal scorer Peter Sivak, Perfetto's right wing. Sivak has missed eight straight games with a lower-body injury.
Even so, Alaska remains fourth in the Mountain Division, where the top four finishers make the playoffs. They own a two-point edge on Utah and Missouri, who are tied for fifth, and have one game in hand on both the Grizzlies and Mavericks.
Perfetto said the Aces can escape their funk by getting back to basics.
"Be simple, work harder, be smart,'' he said. "When things aren't going good, it's simple – shoot the puck and crash the net.''
A pity party is the last thing the Aces need, Perfetto said.
"If you're feeling sorry for yourself, people are going to eat you,'' he said.
Colorado (35-14-4), meanwhile, won its 12th straight game, the longest streak on the 27-team circuit this season and the best stretch in the franchise's six ECHL seasons. The 12 consecutive wins ties for the second-longest streak in franchise history. When they played in the now-defunct Central Hockey League, the Eagles won 15 straight in 2004-05 and 12 straight in 2006-07.
Power-play goals from Shawn St-Amant and Jackson Houck staked Colorado to a 2-0 lead by the middle of the game, and Michael Sdao's even-strength slapper pushed the lead to 3-0 later in the second period. Sdao's goal also chased Aces starter Kevin Carr for the second straight night.
Clarke Saunders stopped 33 shots for the Eagles.
Yan-Pavel Laplante's goal with just less than five minutes to play cut Colorado's lead to 3-1, but Aces came up empty on a power play shortly after that and Colorado's Ryan Harrison sealed victory with an empty-net goal.
The Aces now hit the most daunting part of their 72-game schedule with a three-week, 10-game road trip to New York, New Hampshire, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota and back to Colorado.
"It doesn't get any easier, obviously,'' Lake said. "We've got to come together. We're a close-knit team, but there's some negativity creeping in. We've just got to get back to basics.''
Shuffling the deck
Perfetto's assist on Laplante's goal raised his point streak to four games, with 1-4—5 totals in that span.
Lake dropped prone to the ice to block a Sam Jardine slapper in the third period. The shot slammed Lake in the back of the helmet. He didn't miss a shift.
The Aces are just 3-7-1 against the Eagles. Colorado in those games is 12 for 52 on the power play (23.1-percent efficiency). Alaska is just 4 for 46 (8.7 percent) on the power play against the Eagles.
Colorado center Matt Garbowsky had an assist to run his point streak to 12 games, with 8-15-23 totals in that stretch. Remarkably, that's only the fourth-longest current streak in the ECHL. Missouri's Carter Verhaeghe owns a 15-game streak, Florida's Brendan O'Donnell owns a 14-game streak and Allen's Chad Costello, the league's leading scorer and two-time defending scoring champion, has a 13-game streak.
Colorado 1 2 1 4
Aces 0 0 1 1
First Period – 1, Colorado, St-Amant 12 (Pierro-Zabotel, Salazar), 13:10 (pp). Penalties – Trenz, Aces (elbowing), 12:48.
Second Period – 2, Colorado, Houck 10 (Salazar, Marto), 12:07 (pp); 3, Colorado, Sdao 7 (Belzile, Garbowsky), 13:59. Penalties – Sdao, Colorado (tripping), 9:14; Tarasuk, Aces (tripping), 10:36; Register, Colorado (slashing), 14:35; Zimmerman, Colorado (holding), 17:59; Hunt, Aces (slashing), 18:45.
Third Period – 4, Aces, Laplante 4 (Trenz, Coffman), 15:15; 5, Colorado, Harrison 7 (Holmberg), 19:47. Penalties – Sdao, Colorado (roughing), 2:24; Aces bench minor, served by Sampair (too many men), 2:24; Aces bench minor, served by Coffman (too many men), 9:03; Sdao, Colorado (boarding), 16:05.
Shots on goal – Colorado 8-7-3—18. Aces 13-7-14—34.
Power-play Opportunities – Colorado 2 of 4. Aces 0 of 4.
Goalies – Colorado, Saunders, 22-6-1 (34 shots-33 saves). Aces, Carr, 12-12-3 (14-11); Garteig, enter 13:59 2nd period (4-4).
A – 2,916 (6,399). T – 2:26.
Referee – Stephen Thomson. Linesmen – Scott Sivulich, Josh Ellis.