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Eagles get cold reception in Alaska

Goldie’s Golden Goal is Game-Winner in 4-1 Win

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The Colorado Eagles fell to the defending champion Alaska Aces, 4-1, dropping the second meeting in as many nights and the second of five straight; the teams will play three more times in Colorado this week.  Four different Aces scored in the game, with Wes Goldie netting the game-winner with his 33rd goal of the season, which also marked the 368th goal of his career — tying the ECHL’s all-time record for goals.

For the second night in a row, Colorado got the game’s first goal, but failed to find the back of the net after that.  On this night it came just 1:44 into the game when Aaron Slattengren redirected an Aaron Schneekloth slap-pass past James Reid, who stopped 18 of 19 Eagles’ shots on the night and 45 of 47 in the weekend set.

But the Aces answered back just four minutes later when Kane Lafranchise tossed the puck on goal from the right wing along the goal line and it bounced in off of Kyle Jones’ pads as be moved from left to right through the crease.  Goldie’s goal came at 16:21 when Nick Mazzolini found him in the low slot for a quick shot past the Eagles’ netminder.

Alaska scored two more goals in the second stanza, making it 4-1 and chasing Jones from the Eagles’ net.  Dan Kissel put the Aces’ third unanswered goal up on the board when he found twine with four seconds left on a power play at 8:10 of the second period.  And when Zach Harrison made it 4-1 at 14:05 with a shot from the left circle, Jones was replaced by Andrew Penner after stopping 14 of 18 shots.

Penner was able to fair better, but he also got more help from his teammates, as he faced — and stopped — just nine shots in the game’s final 26 minutes, including only four in the final frame.

The two teams will meet again for three games this week (Wednesday, Friday & Saturday) to close out this five game home-and-home series.