Aces Tie Late, Win 5-4 In OT
February 7, 2010 - ECHL (ECHL)
Alaska Aces News Release
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - In a game that saw each team lead twice in regulation, Judd Blackwater completed a hat trick to force overtime with 63 seconds remaining and Brock McBride scored the winner at 2:13 of OT to lift Alaska to a 5-4 victory over Bakersfield before 4,704 Saturday at Sullivan Arena.
The Aces swept a three-game series for the first time since the opening weekend of the season to climb back into fourth place in the National Conference at 23-21-4 overall, 15-6-3 at home. Alaska has won eight of its last nine games at Sullivan Arena and has gone 12-5-2 since losing a pair in Victoria just after Christmas. The Salmon Kings play host to the Aces next week in Canada; the three-game series opens Thursday at 6:00 p.m. AT, with a Saturday tilt at 6:00 p.m. AT and a Sunday matinee at Noon AT also scheduled. Alaska owns a 4-3-1 record against Victoria this season. All three games will be broadcast live on KFQD 750 AM.
Blackwater scored the first of his three goals (and the first of four power play tallies for the Aces) only 80 seconds into Saturday's game, but Bakersfield answered with a power play marker of its own at 7:32, scored by Andrew Ianiero on a rebound. Another second chance opportunity three minutes later was punched home by Maxime Macenauer, and for the first time in five games, the Condors enjoyed a lead at 2-1. Nick Tuzzolino created a 2-2 deadlock by blasting a one-timer past Bakersfield goalie Timo Pielmeier with 1:33 left in the period.
Blackwater scored again on the power play five minutes into the second period to push Alaska back in front at 3-2, but the Condors once more rallied, with former Ace Gino Guyer tying the game at 13:33 and Chris Allen regaining the lead for the visitors with a power play goal three minutes later. Trailing 4-3 entering the third period, and having squandered a four-minute power play of their own, the Aces survived two chances for Bakersfield with the man advantage, thanks to Frank Doyle's post-to-post denial of Ryan Menei on a backdoor play with four minutes left.
The equalizer when a simple dump-in by Evan Kotsopoulos caromed off one of the glass stanchions and headed directly for the net. Pielmeier, who had started toward the corner to retrieve the puck, scrambled back into position in time to kick the disc out with his right pad, but Blackwater was waiting in the left circle and whipped a one-timer through the sliver of daylight between Pielmeier's pad and the left post. After being out-shot 34-23 in regulation, Alaska took all five shots on goal in overtime, the last coming when McBride pounced on a rebound of a Derick Martin drive from the point and deposited his fourth goal as an Ace and the fourth power play goal of the night for the home team.
Doyle finished with 30 saves in running his record with the team to 10-2-2. Defenseman T.J. Fast handed out four assists and has at least a point in 11 of his last 13 games. Alaska has scored first in 10 of its last 12 outings, while the Pacific Division leaders have surrendered the game's first goal in eight straight contests and remain winless in the last five (0-4-1).
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