ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The question in the ECHL playoffs this season is simple, can anyone beat the Aces? Anchorage has toyed with its competition in the post season and the Kalamazoo Wings appear to be a minor speed bump in the road for Anchorage.
The Aces dispatched the Idaho Steelheads in the second round 4-0 and then repeated the feat in the next round when they treated the Victoria Salmon Kings as an inconvenience in four straight.
Saturday night was the opening game of the Kelly Cup Finals in Anchorage, and the K-Wings were trying to do something neither Idaho or Victoria could do, win a game.
With just over five minutes left in the opening period Wes Goldie put up a power play goal, his second goal of the post season, and staked the Aces to an early 1-0 lead.
Gerald Coleman made that stand up for the Aces through the remainder of the first and deep into the middle frame. Through two periods the K-Wings managed just 15 shots on goal and few rally tested Coleman in the Aces’ net.
Meanwhile, the Aces ramped up the offensive push and put 27 shots through 40 minutes on Kalamazoo’s Ryan Nie in net. Nie was brilliant at times and kept his club in the game but yielded a second goal late in the second period when Chris Langkow picked up his fourth of the playoffs at 19:03 to put breathing room between the two sides.
The constant Anchorage offensive pressure mixed with a stifling defense paid off again the third period when Tyler Ruegsegger scored his first of the finals unassisted. The goal came at 9:20 of the period.
Perhaps sensing the opportunity, the Aces pushed the lead to 4-0 when Langkow scored his second of the game at 11:41 and pushed the K-Wings out of contention in game one.
Ethan Cox added salt to the wound at 12:54 with his third of the post season.
The Aces had five shots on goal in the third and scored on three of them. The Wings launched 10 of their own to no avail.
A crowd of 6599 attended the match.
With the win, the Aces take a 1-0 series lead with game two in Anchorage on Sunday. Kalamazoo will need to figure a way to develop offense and keep the Aces out of their zone. No one else has managed the feat this post season.
Contact Lou.Lafrado@prohockeynews.com
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