VICTORIA , B.C. – Josh Soares scored a late goal to send the Alaska Aces to the conference final for the fourth time in five years after a 6-4 victory over the Victoria Salmon Kings.
The Victoria Salmon Kings entered game 5 looking to stave off elimination for a second day in a row while the Alaska Aces were looking to close out the series and move on to the National Conference finals without having to make a trip home for games 6 & 7.
The league’s playoff scoring leader, Colin Hemingway got the Aces on the scoreboard early on a wrister that beat Victoria netminder Julien Ellis (30 saves on 35 shots) on an assist from Josh Soares at 5:02. Vlad Novak scored a shortanded blast at 7:35 off an assist from Ryan Turek and the Salmon Kings were in a trouble early on. Victoria struck back on the powerplay to cut the lead to 2-1 on a blast off the stick of Sean O’Connor with assists by Olivier Filion and Wes Goldie at 11:39. Victoria got back even and gave themselves a mental boost with a second powerplay goal at 15:24 when Filion buried a rebound of a shot by Patrick Coulomb with an assist to Gary Gladue. Victoria dominated the shot count in the opening period by a 14-8 mark.
Victoria jumped into the lead 3-2 when Aaron Brocklehurst one timed a cross ice pass through JP Lamoureux (32 saves on 36 shots) with an assist from Filion early in the second period. Victoria took a 4-2 lead shortly after on a powerplay at 6:02 as Dan Gendur buried a pass from O’Connor with an assist to Gladue. Alaska jumped right back in the game after a turnover at the blue line gave the puck to Colin Hemingway who found Soares all alone in the opposite circle and Soares drilled the puck over the stick of Ellis at 7:33. Wild play followed but strong goaltending prevailed as the second period expired. Shots in the second period were 16-12 in the Aces favor.
Alexandre Imbault got clear in the circle after another turnover near the blue line and fired a slapper past Eliis to even the score 4-4 at 6:42 of the final period and the pressure was all on the Salmon Kings. Imbault was set up by Colin Hemingway and Soares. Victoria’s Darrel Lloyd was whistled for a double minor shortly after the game-tying goal to add to the pressure on the suddenly hushed crowd of 2471 at Victoria’s Sav-On-Foods Memorial Centre. The Kings survived the penalty kill and gained the momentum back, bringing the crowd back into the game until hi-sticking was whistled on Victoria’s Dylan Yeo at 16:17. Soares capitalized on the powerplay and deked his way through the defense and moved in alone on Ellis before flicking a wrister into the net for the game winner at 17:25, unassisted. Victoria pulled Ellis for the sixth attacker but they were unable to mount a late attack and Scott Burt found the empty net at 19:53 to end all doubt, making the final 6-4.
Final shots on goal were 36-33 in favor of Victoria.
Alaska went 1-8 on the powerplay while Victoria went 3-6.
Alaska wins the series 4-1 and moves on to face either Stockton or Las Vegas. Alaska will be at home in games 1 and 2 at the Sullivan arena next Saturday and Sunday with a start time of 7:15 ADT.
Contact the author at Mike.canady@prohockeynews.com Catch all the playoffs at Intotheboards.net
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