The Alaska Aces are rolling along so well that by winning one hockey game Wednesday night they managed to beat two teams and back another onto the ropes.
The Aces' come-from-behind 4-2 road win over the Victoria Salmon Kings pushed them within one point of winning the Brabham Cup as the ECHL's regular-season champion.
Alaska's seventh straight victory, and 13th in the last 14 games, also eliminated Reading from the chase for the Brabham Cup and pushed the Greenville Road Warriors to within one point of elimination in that hunt.
Any combination of one point won by the Aces or lost by the Road Warriors, delivers Alaska its second Brabham Cup in its eight ECHL seasons. The Aces, who have two regular-season games left, next play at Victoria on Friday night. The Road Warriors who have three games left, entertain Gwinnett tonight.
The Aces won the Brabham Cup in 2006 and went on to win the Kelly Cup playoffs. The team that wins the Brabham Cup is guaranteed home ice throughout the playoffs. Alaska already owns a first-round bye by virtue of its Western Conference title.
Alaska (46-21-3) is the hottest club in the 19-team league -- the Aces' winning streak is the league's longest current one and they are 22-3-1 in their last 26 games. Yet the Aces still needed to shrug off an early two-goal deficit at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in British Columbia.
Victoria (31-35-4), which is now locked into the No. 7 spot as the lowest playoff seed in the Western Conference, racked a 2-0 lead inside the opening nine minutes on goals from Adam Taylor and Chad Painchaud. Painchaud's goal was his team-leading 26th and came off an assist from Rob Hennigar, who furnished his 53rd helper, a Victoria single-season club record.
That deficit marked the first time the Aces had trailed by two goals since a 4-1 loss at Stockton on March 4. Still, Alaska promptly snuffed that deficit before first period's end and rookie goaltender Adam Courchaine (21 saves) never permitted Victoria another sniff.
Aces defenseman Mark Isherwood, named to the ECHL's All-Rookie Team earlier in the day, initiated the comeback with one of his patented cannonading shots -- his 15th goal tied him for the league lead among blueliners.
Less than four minutes later, former Victoria captain Wes Goldie continued to stick it to his old club. Goldie's goal off a feed from linemate Scott Howes, who was also his teammate in Victoria, not only marked his league-leading 44th strike, but gave him nine goals in 11 games against the Salmon Kings this season and extended his league-high point streak to 16 games.
Tied 2-2, the Aces earned their first lead of the night in the second period, when Curtis Fraser deflected Steve Ward's power-play wrister past Jimmy Spratt. Spratt three minutes earlier had come off the bench after Victoria's workhorse goalie, David Shantz, who leads the league in appearances and minutes played, left the game after suffering an injury.
Aces rookie center Ethan Cox delivered the final dagger, roofing a shot over Spratt's glove with less than seven minutes left to play.
Shuffling the deck
During Goldie's 16-game point streak, the longest in the league this season, he has furnished 14-13--27 totals and a ridiculous plus-16 rating.
Goldie has scored goals in five straight games. Still, his 44 goals lead the league by just one after Idaho's Mark Derlago dropped a hat trick on Utah in a 7-2 win Wednesday.
Goldie isn't the only Ace streaking. Linemate Brian Swanson's assist stretched his point streak to nine games (3-9--12). Howes' two assists give him a four-game point streak (0-6--6). Isherwood had scored a goal in three straight and owns a four-game point streak (3-2--5). And Cox pushed his point streak to four games (2-3--5).
Defenseman Chad Anderson (one assist) fired a game-high six shots on goal, twice as many shots as anyone else in the match.
Aces coach Brent Thompson gave the night off to captain Scott Burt and defensemen Bryan Miller and Russ Sinkewich. Rookie center Chris Langkow returned to the lineup after his extended loan to Peoria of the American Hockey League.
Thompson gave spot shifts to forward Jacques Lamoureux in his pro debut. Lamoureux, who went even with one shot on goal, is the brother of former Aces netminder Jean-Philippe Lamoureux, the ECHL Goaltender of the Year in 2009, when he backstopped the Aces to Game 7 of the Kelly Cup Finals. Jacques Lamoureux is scheduled to play again Friday -- he's on an amateur tryout agreement -- before returning to the Air Force Academy, where he delivered 79 goals and 139 points in 116 games over three seasons after transferring from Northern Michigan.
Former Aces defenseman Derick Martin furnished an assist and, at plus 1, was one of four Victoria skaters to record a plus rating.
Find Doyle Woody's blog at adn.com/hockeyblog or call him at 257-4335.
Aces 2 1 1 -- 4
Victoria 2 0 0 -- 2
First Period -- 1, Victoria, Taylor 5 (Aspenlind), 5:46; 2, Victoria, Painchaud 26 (Hennigar, Martin), 8:21; 3, Aces, Isherwood 15 (Howes, Anderson), 13:00; 4, Aces, Goldie 44 (Howes, Swanson), 16:51. Penalties -- Hennigar, Victoria (slashing), 4:45; Howes, Aces (roughing), 4:45; Gentile, Aces (hooking), 9:32; Cowie, Victoria (interference), 13:51; Gajic, Victoria (hooking), 19:13.
Second Period -- 5, Aces, Fraser 6 (Ward, Gentile), 13:30 (pp). Penalties -- Stefanishion, Victoria (roughing), 11:07; Isherwood, Aces (slashing), 11:07; McLeod, Victoria (slashing), 11:49; Victoria bench minor, served by Siddall (too many men), 15:19.
Third Period -- 6, Aces, Cox 13, 13:43. Penalties -- Stefanishion, Victoria (high-sticking), 2:34; Waugh, Victoria (high-sticking), 6:38.
Shots on goal -- Aces 9-7-8---24. Victoria 13-8-2---23.
Power-play Opportunities -- Aces 1 of 6; Victoria 0 of 2.
Goalies -- Aces, Courchaine, 17-7-2 (23 shots-21 saves). Victoria, Shantz (12-10); Spratt, 7-4-1, enter 10:22 2nd period (12-10).
A -- 3,727 (7,006). T -- 2:11.
Referee -- Trent Knorr. Linesmen -- Kirk Van Helvoirt, Tim Bilyk.
By DOYLE WOODY
dwoody@adn.com