ANCHORAGE, AK – Three down and one to go for the Alaska Aces who have torn through the ECHL playoffs at a record pace with a 12-2 mark. Their battle against the Las Vegas Wranglers for the National Conference title was supposed to be an epic one, but the Aces ripped through the Wranglers in four straight. As a matter-of-fact they have dominated each of their opponents going no further than five games in any series. During their romps they have outscored those clubs by a 52-22 margin.
Now the Aces are set to face the giant-killers from the American Conference, the South Carolina Stingrays. The Stingrays started out struggling against the Charlotte Checkers in the first round. After recovering from two losses to start that series they knocked out Charlotte, the Brabham Cup champion Florida Everblades and then the defending Kelly Cup champion Cincinnati Cyclones in order. A win over the National Conference champion Aces would be a trifecta for the Stingrays that could only be equaled, but never beaten. A South Carolina win would also prove to be historic due to the fact it would be their third ECHL championship, a level reached only by the Hampton Roads Admirals franchise.
Due to their better record during the regular season the Aces are favored to win the series and have home ice. After all, why shouldn’t they be? The club is loaded from top-to-bottom and never mind winning in Alaska; it is difficult enough to score a goal against the Aces at home.
The numbers posted by the Aces are amazing. They set an ECHL record for penalty-killing proficiency with 89.3% success rate during the regular season—and have bettered it to 92.3% in the playoffs. It is also almost impossible to find a stat Aces netminder J.P. Lamoureux is not leading the league in going into this series. By the way, the team also has the league’s two top leading scorers in Josh Soares and former St. Louis Blues winger Colin Hemingway who have each accumulated 22 points in 14 games.
Alaska head coach Keith McCambridge has assembled a team that not only has talented players, but role players who understand their respective parts on the team. The players who don’t score can and will dig deep to do the dirty work. The club is also experienced as six players on the roster and McCambridge himself has won ECHL championships in the past.
While Soares, Colin Hemingway and Lamoureux are all earning the attention they are gaining the club’s strength is the blueline. McCambridge, a former defenseman himself, has recruited and traded for a blueline crew that could play on an AHL club—and some have extensively. Four of the team’s defenders did indeed play in the AHL this year and appeared in a combined 98 games (Derick Martin (14), Tyson Marsh (29), T.J. Fast (46) and Bryan Miller (9)). ECHL All-Star Matt Shasby, Ryan Turek, Nick Tuzzolino and Corbin Schmidt round out the defensive corps for the Aces. Not everyone can dress and recently Schmidt and Turek have been on the sidelines.
Soares and Colin Hemingway deservedly receive a lot of credit for the club’s success, but you cannot find a forward on the roster which does not have a critical duty with the club. Alexandre Imbeault, Cam Keith and 2007 ECHL playoff leading scorer Lance Galbraith provide a second level of scoring and skill. Meanwhile players like Scott Burt, Luke Erickson, Vladimir Novak, Matt Stefanishion, Thomas Kana and Brett Hemingway are all important pieces to the puzzle. Once again with so many top players someone has to sit and recently that player has been Brett Hemingway.
The key to the series may very well lie in the first two games of the series. The travel is astounding for this level of the minors. It is a perfect example of why some criticized the league for opening its footprint (the league is doing quite well, thank you). As a matter of fact this series has two clubs which are the furthest apart geographically in the history of the ECHL—if not in North American–professional hockey history. If the Aces can hold serve at home and win a game early on South Carolina’s ice they could put the Stingrays in a bad position.
Fortunately the first two games of the series will take place on the weekend or there might be some blurry eyes in the North Charleston, South Carolina region. Now the only question is can the Stingrays beat the odds again to knock off the Aces? Or will Alaska make easy work of this club just as they have with the rest of their so-called challengers. It says here this series will be good enough to make up for your loss of sleep on the East coast.
Notes
In addition to McCambridge the former Kelly Cup winners on the Aces include Keith, Novak, Schmidt and Shasby. Burt and Galbraith have each won the Cup twice, but both times came when they were members of the Idaho Steelheads. South Carolina’s Patrick Wellar won the Cup with the Aces in 2006…There have been five Kelly Cup winners since the WCHL clubs entered the ECHL after the 2002-03 season. Those teams have won the Cup three of those five seasons with Idaho winning in 2004 and 2007 while the Aces won in 2006. South Carolina has not won the Cup since 2001 when they beat the Trenton Titans in five games. The Aces knocked off the Gwinnett Gladiators in five games to win their only Kelly Cup.
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