ANCHORAGE Alaska – Hosting the Colorado Eagles for a weekend series, the Alaska Aces are looking to improve their position in the Mountain division. With the post-season approaching, the Aces sit in fourth place and have seven games in hand on the Kelly Cup Champs – the Allen Americans. Colorado is nipping at Allen’s heels in second 
place, and Idaho and Utah are also jockeying for a play-off position.
After giving up a two-goal lead and losing in OT last night, the Aces need to get both of the points available tonight. They seem to have lost their ability to play nicely in the sandbox tonight, however.
Colorado acquired their first power play early with Aces forward Ben Lake in the box, then Ryan Trenz was tossed in the bin for slashing. A concurrent bench penalty for unsportsman-like conduct by Tim Coffman gave the Eagles a 5-3 advantage to capitalize on. A couple more roughing penalties against Alaska towards the end of the period and Colorado punches a second power play goal behind net-minder Kevin Carr of the Aces.
The first period ends with a score of 2-0 Colorado, and the Aces have the advantage in shots at 15 over the Eagles 10. The story is in the power play opportunities, though. Colorado is 3rd in the league with PPGs, and have 2/5 in the first period alone. The Aces are 0/1.
The first half of the second period action was all in front of the Aces net. The Eagles responded to the lack of shots on goal with 8 in the first 7 minutes which brought the shot differential with the Aces still sitting at 15, and the Eagles surpass with 18 shots, and another goal for Colorado at 7:15. The fourth goal seven and a half minutes later.
Kevin Carr was pulled from the net, with Michael Garteig replacing. This decision shouldn’t reflect Carr’s play for tonight, as he made some incredible saves, but had little to no support from the D-line. The Aces immediately put themselves in another dangerous situation by drawing another penalty.
Jackson Houck gets himself a hat-trick on the power play, and mouthed off at Marc-Andre Levesque of the Aces who flung his glove off and laid out Houck on the ice with one solid punch before getting escorted off the ice. The Aces, now fully fired up, put the pressure on the penalty kill, and nabbed a short-handed dinger by Yan-Pavel Laplante to bring the score at the end of the second 5-1 Colorado advantage.
Colorado started the third period with 27 seconds of power play remaining on the clock. This time they didn’t get anything out of it. Aces gain their second goal on the board in the first minute and a half, with Tim Coffman bunging one over Hafner’s shoulder.
The Eagles took advantage of yet another power play popping in their 4th PPG at 14:29 of the 3rd period putting the score at 6-2 over Alaska. This whole game has been pushy-shovey, and the third period also had its fair share of fights. Most of them were started by Alaska, but in the last two and a half minutes of the game the double penalties both went against Colorado.
Aces had a two-man advantage for the second time in this game, and never found the back of the net. The final score: Colorado 6, Alaska 2. Shots on goal 43-36 Aces. They outshot the Eagles, but just were not dangerous enough all night long. Rubber match is Sunday afternoon with 3:05 puck-drop at the Sullivan Arena.
Part of the stress that the Aces felt tonight may have resulted from a news story about their future aired by a local TV station Friday night. The story was headlined “Alaska Aces Ownership Considering Ceasing Operations”, and cited an unnamed source for the predictions.
In a telephone interview, Aces co-owner Jerry Mackie spoke with Anchorage station KTVA-11 on Friday. “Nothing has officially been decided yet” Mackie said. “We’ve been struggling” He continued. “It’s been a labor of love for fifteen years and we’re trying to figure out what’s next in store”.
The Alaska Aces are the only professional sports team in Alaska, and the declining attendance over the last two years has really taken a hit on the team revenue. Add to that the extreme costs associated with travel for such a remotely located team, and it is easy to see how real the struggle is.
The Aces organization plans to address the claims, and will make a formal announcement regarding any decision on Wednesday afternoon.
Contact the author at Liz.Ortiz@prohockeynews.com
Follow the author on Twitter @LizOrtizPHN or @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.