Aces put a hurting on Monarchs

MANCHESTER, NH – Tim Coffman had a hat trick and Kevin Carr stopped 30 of 32 shots fired at him as the Alaska Aces throttled the Manchester Monarchs 7-2 Sunday at the SNHU Arena. Coffman had five goals in the two games at Manchester this weekend.

The first period scoring belonged to two players: Alaska’s Danny Moynihan and Manchester’s Rihards Bukarts.

Moynihan opened the scoring at 11:35 by banging the puck past Monarchs goaltender Sam Brittain off assists from the Tims – Coffman and Wallace. The goal was Moynihan’s 16th of the season.

Bukarts answered for Manchester at 13:49, his 14th goal of the season, with help from Cory Ward and Thomas Schmetisch.

Moynihan gave the Aces a 2-1 lead at 15:41 with his second goal of the game and 17th of the season. Brad Navin did some digging in front of the Manchester net, and Moynihan was in the right place at the right time to tap the puck in.

A tap-in was the way Bukarts got his second goal of the game. Alaska goaltender Carr stopped Justin Agosta’s shot from the right point, then got a piece of the rebound shot by Kevin Morris. However, he didn’t get all of it and Bukarts was cruising by the net and pushed the puck in for his 15th goal of the season.

The shots after one period favored Manchester 15-12.

The Aces offense exploded in the second period, led by Coffman. He scored on the power play at 2:59, finishing a play started by Steve Tarasuk and continued by Wallace. It was Coffman’s 20th goal of the season.

At the 4:04 mark, Navin flew up the left wing and sauced a pass to the front of the net that Mackenze Stewart batted out of the air and into the net for his fourth goal of the season, and a 4-2 Alaska lead.

Coffman struck again at 15:58, his fourth goal in two games, and 21st of the season, taking a long clearing pass from goaltender Carr and scoring on a breakaway.

Speaking of breakaways, that’s just how Pavel Laplante got his 6th goal of the season at 17:31. It was a short-handed tally, his 3rd such goal this season. Wallace with the assist and the Aces with a 6-2 lead.

Shots after two periods favored Alaska by a count of 25-22.

The Aces continued the onslaught in the third period as Coffman completed his hat trick at 6:57 on an assist from Wallace.

The final shot tally favored Alaska 38-32. The Aces were 2-for-2 on the power play while the Monarchs went 0-for-4.

Alaska remains on the road with three games in the coming week on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at Utah against the Grizzlies.