KTUU.com | Alaska's news and information source | Aces force decisive Game 7 with 3-2 win

Aces force decisive Game 7 with 3-2 win

by Andrew Hinkelman
Thursday, June 4, 2009

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The Alaska Aces and South Carolina Stingrays battled to the last tick of the clock and beyond Thursday night.

They're going to have to do it again Friday night.

The Aces survived Game 6 by the slimmest of margins and forced a decisive Game 7 with a 3-2 win over South Carolina in the Kelly Cup finals at Sullivan Arena.

Matt Stefanishion's goal with 3:37 to go in regulation broke a 2-2 tie, and Alaska needed referee Andy Thiessen to waive off the tying goal as time expired to push an ECHL championship series to the full seven games for only the third time.

The Stingrays' Zach Tarkir put the puck past Alaska's J.P. Lamoureux as the horn sounded -- not that it could be heard above the roaring record crowd of 6,610 -- but Thiessen immediately signaled no goal.

He ruled the puck had been played with a high stick. Replays were inconclusive at best on that call, but it did show the puck went over the line after time had expired.

"I had my head buried on the bench, I couldn't watch," Stefanishion said of the tense final seconds. "When it went in my heart dropped."

The Aces found themselves essentially on a penalty kill for the final 2:44 of regulation. Ryan Turek got whistled for hooking giving the Stingrays the man advantage. Coach Jared Bednar pulled goalie Jonathan Boutin for an extra attacker with 1:39 to go.

But the Aces defenders and Lamoureux were as good as they needed to be for exactly as long as they needed to be, and now the Kelly Cup will be awarded to the winner of one of sports' most exciting spectacles -- Game 7 of a championship hockey series.

"It's going to be crazy," Alaska's Lance Galbraith said. "If you would have told me at the start of the year we'd have Game 7 of the Kelly Cup finals at home, I'd take it."

He'll take it, but the Aces had to work for it. South Carolina took a 2-0 lead on a pair of goals from Spencer Carbery and Travis Morin 38 seconds apart to stun the full house just 7:21 into the game.

First Carbery found himself all alone in front the net and had two point-blank chances rebuffed by Lamoureux, the ECHL Goalie of the Year.

But the second shot rebound skidded back and to the left of Lamoureux, who didn't know where the puck was. Carbery went over and got it -- the Aces defenders still MIA -- and banked the puck in off of Lamoureux's left skate.

The crowd, which was roaring after the two magnificent saves, was silenced and the Aces looked and played shocked. That led to a 3-on-2 odd-man rush for South Carolina off of a defensive zone faceoff.

Lamoureux made the initial save on Maxime Lacroix, but was caught out of position on his back way out from the net. Brad Farynuk collected the loose puck and slipped a nifty backhand pass to Morin who chipped it into a yawning net.

"They came out strong, came right at us," Galbraith said.

"It's tough to go down like that," forward Josh Soares said. "But we knew it was early."

Alaska slowly collected itself after that, and despite allowing a couple more odd-man rushes gradually started controlling play.

"It seems like once we get our legs underneath us you can see how good we are," Galbraith said. "We're not the greatest at starting games."

A 4-on-3 power play gave the Aces several quality scoring chances, and they eventually capitalized after it had turned into a 5-on-4 when Lance Galbraith deflected Matt Stefanishion's bomb from the left point to make it 2-1.

"I feel real comfortable back there," said Stefanishion a forward who has been playing the point on power plays since the Las Vegas series.

The goal technically came after the power play had expired, but Farynuk hadn't even left the box when the puck went in.

Soares scored his first goal of the series, wristing home a shot on the power play at 3:56 of the second period to forge a 2-2 tie. Matt Shasby, who was benched for Game 5, carried the puck up the left wing boards in transition and fed a sweet pass to Soares in the slot.

"After we scored that goal to make it 2-1, we carried (momentum) over to the second," Soares said.

That started what was essentially an entire period of domination by the Aces, who had a number of grade-A chances close in during the middle frame.

South Carolina's best opportunity came after a late power play expired and Sasha Pokulok got loose on a breakaway after leaving the penalty box.

But the game appeared headed for the series' second consecutive overtime until Stefanishion broke the deadlock with an outstanding individual effort.

He dangled at least two defenders as he weaved his way through the neutral zone, into the attacking zone, then backhanded a shot past Boutin, who was starting for the first time since Game 2 in Anchorage.

"I used my slap shot to fake out the defender and get around him," Stefanishion said. "Now it's one game for everything."

Tickets to Game 7 are on sale now online and at the Aces' office on the corner of 15th Avenue and Gambell Street. The game is expected to sell out Thursday night, but if there are tickets available Friday morning the Aces' ticket office will re-open at 7 a.m.

Game 7 will also be broadcast live statewide on GCI channel 1 and on KTUU, Channel 2 and KTUU.com will provide in-game updates during intermissions and send out e-mail and text message alerts at the conclusion of the game.

Contact Andrew Hinkelman at ahinkelman@ktuu.com