Fresno Suffers Overtime Loss at Alaska, 5-4

December 10, 2005 - ECHL (ECHL)
Fresno Falcons News Release


ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The Fresno Falcons overcame an early 2-0 deficit to take a pair of one-goal leads on the road at Sullivan Arena, but in the end fell in overtime 5-4 to the Alaska Aces, which kept alive an 11-game winning streak.

Alaska opened the scoring at 3:25 of the first when defenseman Peter Metcalf joined the rush and beat Fresno goaltender Brett Jaeger to the blocker side. The Aces added to their lead skating on their first power play of the game. Matt Shasby's shot from the point was stopped by Jaeger, but Mike Scott poked in the rebound at 4:44 to give Alaska a 2-0 advantage. Fresno responded on the very next shift. After some hard work in the offensive zone, Kelsey Muench found Rob McFeeters in the slot, whose wrister whistled past Alaska goaltender Matt Underhill at 5:19. The Falcons then converted on their first power play of the evening, as well, with Cory Murphy's wrist shot from the blue line snaking through a screen past Underhill at 14:17, and the teams headed to the second tied at two.

The Aces ran into a ton of penalty trouble over the final minutes of the first and into the second, eventually resulting in seven continuous minutes of power play time for the Falcons, including four straight minutes of a five-on-three. Exactly one minute into the second, Fresno's Dustin VanBallegooie finally cashed in on the two-man advantage when he sent a slapshot under the crossbar for his third goal of the season. Alaska tied the game at three at 11:07 of the period after Chris Minard scored an unassisted goal to make the Falcons pay for a turnover in their own zone. But Fresno re-gained their one-goal edge less than two minutes later when McFeeters found John Wroblewski in the low slot, who chipped in his second of the season off the backhand.

The Falcons held their 4-3 lead well into the third, but after failing to clear the puck from deep inside their own end, the Aces found the equalizer. Mike Scott teed up a slapshot at the top of the right circle, which beat Jaeger to the glove side at 13:19 sending the game to overtime tied at four.

For the second consecutive game the two teams skated to the extra session after Fresno lost in a shootout on Wednesday, 4-3, but on this occasion, the Falcons entered OT on the penalty kill. Alaska quickly capitalized when Alex Leavitt corralled a rebound along the goal line and fed it back past Jaeger just 24 seconds after overtime began for the winning margin.

Fresno gains its second point of the series after suffering its first overtime loss of the season and now stands at 10-4-6, leading the Pacific Division with 26 points on the year.

The Falcons and Aces complete a three-game set in Anchorage and clash for the fourth straight game overall tomorrow at Sullivan Arena. Fans may tune in to the live radio broadcast on 1550 Sporting News Radio beginning with the FutureTek Pre-game Show at 8 p.m. Pacific time. Or, they may view the game on-line on a pay-per-view basis courtesy of B2 Networks beginning with the drop of the puck at 8:15 p.m. Pacific. B2 Networks can be accessed via the Falcons' website at www.fresnofalcons.com.



ECHL Stories from December 10, 2005


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