Wirll Puts the Aces in a Hole

December 17, 2005 - ECHL (ECHL)
Victoria Salmon Kings News Release


Victoria, BC - The Victoria Salmon Kings and Alaska Aces renewed acquaintances tonight at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre, a game which the Salmon Kings stopped the Aces 11 game winning streak dead in its tracks with a 5-4 overtime win.

Victoria was certainly wary of the team that traveled 2189 kilometres and skated the Aces into their end boards to open the game. They forced Alaska onto their heels and the Salmon Kings hard work paid off early.

After two blocked Steve Lingren blasts from the point the veteran defenseman finally got the third one through. This time the shot went straight through a group of legs in front of Aces Netminder Chris Beckford-Tseu, and past the goalie for his tenth goal of the season.

The Aces killed a two minute minor penalty and worked where they work best, five on five. After a couple of big saves from Salmon Kings Goaltender Rob McVicar, Forward Chris Minard took a shot from the big circle to the goalies left. Minard's shot beat McVicar coming across the crease past the blocker arm, to tie the game at one going into the first intermission.

The Salmon Kings opened the second period quickly netting their second goal and second lead of the night, when Forward KC Timmons picked up a loose puck to the left of Beckford-Tseu and beat the sprawling netminder for his eighth goal of the season.

Just 27 seconds later the Aces tied the game at two. Forward Chris Minard was deep in the corner to the left of McVicar and fed the puck to a wide open Patrick Weller who beat McVicar over the blocker shoulder with his second of the year.

The Aces then took the play right back into the Salmon Kings zone and took the lead just 47 seconds later. Ryan Gaucher, the ECHL's highest scoring defenseman this season, found Olivier Filion in front of McVicar and Filion snuck the puck past the goalie, for his fifth thus far, to give the Aces the 3-2 lead.

At 8:28 of the middle frame, with the Salmon Kings on the powerplay, Victoria tied the game at three. They worked the puck back to the blueline to Lingren who let go a howitzer, blasting it through the Aces netminder, for his second of the night and eleventh goal of the season.

With the Salmon Kings top scoring line of Mike Wirll, Lanny Gare and Adam Taylor on the ice, Victoria again worked the Aces defense down low. Wirll passed behind the net to Taylor in the corner to the right of Beckford-Tseu. Taylor found Gare wide open in front of the netminder and put it through the goalie's five-hole, to give the Salmon Kings the 4-3 lead, heading into the third period.

The Aces did not want to give an inch though and opened the third period like they were a team protecting a long winning streak. At 3:36 Minard picked up a loose puck in front of McVicar and beat the goalie off a scrambled play in front to tie the game up at four, with his second goal of the night.

The teams played the rest of the third period scoreless and again the Salmon Kings took an opponent to the extra period. Just 33 seconds into the overtime Wirll picked up a puck in the slot, he walked in on Beckford-Tseu and fired a shot passed the goalie to beat the Aces, 5-4.

The Salmon Kings out-shot the Aces 36-33 and converted two of seven chances on the powerplay while shutting down the Aces man advantage all seven chances they had, in front of 4248 at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.

The Salmon Kings and Aces three game series continues tomorrow night in Victoria and will conclude on Monday evening. Tickets for all Salmon Kings home games can be purchased from Select Your Tickets at the arena, online at www.selectyourtickets.com or by phone at 250-220-7777.



ECHL Stories from December 17, 2005


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central