KALAMAZOO, Mich – In October, 19 teams vied for the opportunity to hoist the top prize in AA hockey, and on Saturday, the Alaska Aces reached their goals by defeating the Kalamazoo Wings 5-3 to capture the Kelly Cup eliminating the K-Wings four games to one.
End-to-end action in the first period featured plenty of hard checks and big saves, but resulted in no scoring despite a combined 21 shots (Alaska 11, Kalamazoo 10) in the period.
The second period got underway and the scoring ensued almost immediately, and was kept up throughout the course of the middle stanza. Brian McGuirk opened up the scoring with his tip of Wes O’Neill’s slap shot, just under the three minute mark of the middle frame. The goal was the fourth for McGuirk in the playoffs, two more goals than he scored in the entirety of the regular season.
Alaska responded almost immediately, as it only took 32 seconds for them to knot the game back up at 1. Steve Ward scored his first of the post-season with a shot from the right circle that barely beat Kalamazoo goalie, Ryan Nie.
Over ten minutes passed before either team would strike again, with the Aces finding the back of the net at the 13:54 mark with Chris Langkow’s power play tally, his seventh of the Kelly Cup Playoffs. The goal tied Langkow with Scott Howes for the team lead in playoff scoring.
Two minutes later, AJ Thelen one-timed a slap shot directly off a Trent Daavettila won faceoff from the left circle. It was Thelen’s fourth marker of the post-season and his first while not on a power play. The goal moved his playoff point total to 11, good enough for second best among ECHL defenseman; only behind teammate, Sam Ftorek (20).
Alaska would strike yet again, this time late in the third period. With only 1:07 left in the middle stanza, Chad Anderson beat Nie with a slap shot from the top of the right circle. The goal gave the Aces a 3-2 lead entering the final twenty minutes of action.
For the first 14:29 of the third period, the game was highlighted by defense. But, the final five and a half minutes of the final frame had three goals. Chris Langkow scored his second of the night and his eighth of the playoffs with an unassisted tally.
With just under four minutes to play, the K-Wings clogged up the crease in front of Aces goalie Gerald Coleman and Trent Daavettila (6th) found the puck on the doorstep and poked it past the goal line to bring Kalamazoo to within one goal.
But just 28 seconds later, Alaska sealed the fate of Kalamazoo when Curtis Fraser scored his sixth of the post-season with a quick shot from the slot area that beat Nie over his glove.
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