Behind the Aces' bench: The sights, the sounds, the smell (surprisingly, not funky)

You'd think that by the third period it would smell seriously ripe back here behind the Alaska Aces bench. Sixteen men have spent the night banging out shifts of 45 seconds or so, sweat leaking from their pores, soaking their equipment, and surely that must generate some funk. Somehow, though, it's not remotely rank in this little region of the rink.

Actually, it smells like, well, nothing. Either the Aces are a spectacularly hygienic hockey team or Sullivan Arena is outfitted with an amazing ventilation system.

And who knew it could be so polite back here? Sure, F-bombs flow freely — as adjective, verb, adverb, noun. Yet manners exist too.

Handed a bottle of Gatorade from the back ledge of the bench, which he can't reach without getting up from his seat and taking his eye off the game, Danny Moynihan says, "Thank you.''

Equipment manager Mike Burkhead hands Tim Wallace a new stick and gets a thank you.

Now Moynihan wants to apply some product to the top of his stick's shaft, but he is not without courtesy: "Can I have some baby powder, please?''

This is a Friday night in February inside Sullivan Arena, Game No. 48, the two-thirds pole of the 72-game regular-season grind in the ECHL, a league two steps below the NHL.

Coach Rob Murray has told his players in a pregame meeting that the franchise will shut down after season's end after 14 campaigns and three Kelly Cups on the circuit. What the hell, says Murray, who guided the club to the 2014 Cup, let's go out a winner.

The streaking Colorado Eagles, winners of nine straight games, are in town and tonight is the opener of a three-game series between Mountain Division rivals. After a strong start to the season, the Aces have been .500-ish of late, and their grip on a playoff spot has weakened. They remain without league-leading goal scorer Peter Sivak, injured at Colorado two weeks earlier.

From the stands or the press box, you can see some of what occurs on the bench any game night — Murray barking at the ref or captain Garet Hunt leaning over the boards and chirping the opposing bench. But you can't hear much of anything, or glean many details.

A hat trick of troubles

Viewing from distant quarters on this night, you would likely never know Aces center Tim Coffman in the first period endures crisis after crisis.

Coffman returns to the bench after a shift early in the game, immediately gets Burkhead's attention and points to his left skate, which he props on the bench for Burkhead to survey.

"I push, and it slips,'' Coffman tells Burkhead. "It slips.''

Turns out Coffman is wearing a relatively new pair of skates. The boots are firmer than his old skates, which are worn and have a more pliable boot that he prefers. So Burkhead texts one of his game-night assistants, who soon works his way through the stands and hands Coffman's old skates over the Plexiglass. When Coffman comes back to the bench after another shift, he quickly removes his skates — "Not ready for prime time yet,'' Burkhead says — and slips into his old ones.

Still, Coffman's problems are only beginning. Midway through the first period, he returns to the bench for a line change while play continues — something known as changing on the fly. Suddenly, the puck glances off Aces center Ben Lake, who has just jumped onto the ice to replace Coffman, and flutters into Coffman's chest.

Coffman grabs the puck with his right hand, holds it for a split-second, and then throws it toward the middle of the ice and steps onto the bench. Because Coffman has his back to the ice and both teams are changing on the fly, referee Stephen Thomson and linesmen Josh Ellis and Dominick Eubank are apparently shielded from Coffman's actions, which rightfully could have been deemed illegal on a number of fronts.

"That could have been about three penalties,'' Murray says.

"I didn't know what to do with it,'' Coffman responds.

After the game, Coffman says he was stunned there was no penalty.

"That could have been a disaster,'' he says, smiling and shaking his head. "I was ready to go the penalty box.''

That's two first-period crises for Coffman. He soon racks the hat trick of troubles. A shot by Colorado's Alex Belzile, Coffman's former Alaska teammate, is deflected, hits Coffman on his bearded chin and leaves a cut that requires a handful of stitches during intermission.

"Five zips,'' Coffman says later. "It was a whirlwind of events.''

Controlled chaos as lines change

Changing on the fly can look chaotic, like a whirlwind, to a neophyte, but it is routine. On this night, Murray handles the forwards and assistant coach Gerald Coleman, the two-time Kelly Cup-winning goaltender with the Aces, commands the defensemen.

In hockey parlance, the forward line designated to take the next shift is known as the line that is "up.'' Murray either announces the next line up or taps players on the back to inform them.

Murray positions himself behind the forwards, who sit on the section of the bench farthest from the net the Aces are defending. Coleman stands behind the defensemen, who always use the section of bench closest to their goaltender.

"Where we at?'' Coffman asks at one point during the game.

"Coff's line's up,'' Murray announces.

"Levy, Stewie,'' says Coleman, to let defensemen Marc-Andre Levesque and Mackenze Stewart know they are up.

The other two staffers behind the bench are Burkhead — Burkie — and athletic trainer Scott McLay — Scooter. At Sullivan Arena, Burkie is always stationed, from the perspective of the bench, to the far right, near a collection of extra sticks so he can quickly hand a replacement to a player with a broken stick. Scooter positions himself far left on the bench, nearest the red line, so he is equidistant from the halves of the rink should he have to go on the ice to tend to an injured player.

A visit from the ref

Late in the period, during a halt in play, referee Thomson goes to the Colorado bench to talk to Eagles coach Aaron Schneekloth. Thomson then glides over the Aces' bench and tells Murray something — about line changes, or face-offs, no one's certain — that Murray can't quite glean over the noise of music blaring from the public address system.

"I have no idea what you just said,'' Murray says as Thomson skates away.

The Aces are soon called for a minor penalty — too many men on the ice — even as their bench howls that it was the Eagles with six skaters, one too many, on the ice.

"Both teams had six,'' Murray tells linesman Ellis.

"I know you guys did,'' Ellis said. "I don't know about them.''

During the first intermission — the Aces lead 2-1 on goals from Levesque and center Stephen Perfetto — Murray addresses the team briefly in the locker room. Be more composed, more diligent in the defensive zone, he says. He repairs to his tiny office adjacent to the locker room to huddle with Coleman.

Coleman thinks Thomson earlier had perhaps been requesting the teams simmer down on interaction with the opposing benches while changing lines during stops in play. Hunt, one of the ECHL's most frequent fighters and equally adept at chirping, is a likely subject.

"It's not like Huntsie is going to go onto their bench,'' Coleman says.

"Well, I wouldn't got that far,'' says Murray, the former NHLer who was a gritty, intense center in his 17 pro seasons. "I ended up on the other bench a few times.''

The lead slips away

In the second period, as Perfetto arrives at the bench after a shift on the power play, he locks eyes with Burkhead.

"You got laces?'' he asks, and sticks out his left leg to show Burkhead his skate.

An opposing skater has stepped on the top of Perfetto's skates, shredding the laces right at the knot. Burkhead wields a box cutter, zips it down the entire row of laces, quickly yanks them out and threads in new laces.

Hunt is headed to the penalty box to serve time for roughing and Colorado gets a power play. Perfetto can't immediately play on the first penalty-killing shift — he's slipping into his re-laced skate and tying it — but heads out for a shift in the last minute of the Eagles' man advantage.

The Eagles don't score on the power play but soon deliver the equalizer. Colorado center Matt Garbowsky takes advantage of an opportunity triggered by a poorly-timed change by Aces defenseman Ryan Trenz.

"C'mon, boys, let's take charge,'' Murray says.

Yet Colorado's Luke Salazar soon scores to give the Eagles a 3-2 lead. Murray says little on the bench in the last three minutes of the period, other than to announce who is up. When coach goes quiet, players later say, you know he's unhappy.

The Aces still trail 3-2 at the second intermission, and Murray contemplates whether to admonish his players or go relatively light on them.

"I don't know what to say,'' he says. "I should get mad.''

He does. It's a quick sand-blasting, primarily a colorful critique of poor plays by defensemen, followed by a motivating challenge to be better.

No comeback tonight 

The start of the third period is delayed a couple minutes. Water left on the ice by the Zamboni during resurfacing hasn't quite frozen. Murray is impatient with the delay. Then he sees Ellis manning a squeegee behind the Aces' net to spread ample water there.

"OK, there's some water there,'' Murray concedes.

"It's a (expletive) lake,'' Stewart says.

Murray implores his team in the first half of the period.

"They're gassed over there, men.''

"Not good enough, boys. We've got to win some battles in the offensive zone.''

Hunt chimes in: "C'mon fellas, we can't wait around. Have some urgency.''

Still trailing 3-2 with 85 seconds left, Murray pulls goaltender Michael Garteig in favor of an extra attacker. But the Aces cannot get possession of the puck.

"Are you kidding me?'' Murray mutters.

Colorado defenseman Michael Sdao scores into Alaska's empty net with 37.8 seconds left for a 4-2 lead. Stewart scores for the Aces, but there's just 5.3 seconds left. They swallow a 4-3 loss.

After the game

In the locker room, it's quiet enough to hear a puck drop on the carpet. In his pre-game address following a video session, Murray had urged his team to often hit Colorado's high-scoring forwards, like Garbowsky and Belzile.

"They have to pay the price every time they touch the puck,'' Murray had said.

But those dangerous Eagles rarely got rubbed with sandpaper.

"Where's the urgency?'' Murray asks his players. "Where's the urgency, boys?''

The Aces lose to the Eagles the next night, and again the night after, stretching their winless streak to five games.

They rebounded, though, at the start of an ensuing three-week, 10-game road trip by getting a win, an overtime loss and another win — five points of a possible six — in three games in the Eastern time zone.

Coffman capped that stretch with his first ECHL hat trick and a career high-tying four points in a 6-2 demolition of the Manchester Monarchs in New Hampshire. He was still using his old skates.

And Murray, no doubt, felt good every time he announced Coff's line was up.

This column is the opinion of sports reporter Doyle Woody. Reach him at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com, check out his blog at adn.com/hockeyblog and follow him on Twitter.com/JaromirBlagr