Alaska Playing For The Cup

[DanAKAL]

After Alaska won just about every title and award this season in the ECHL it has come down to the Alaska Aces vs the Kalamazoo Wings (Michigan) for the ECHL Kelly Cup. Aces have home ice advantage and just finished Game 2 in Anchorage Sunday night. In game 1 on Saturday night the Aces blew out the K-Wings 5-0. The Wings could just never get going on the Olympic Size Ice up here and Alaska brought their standard heavy pressure to the net. Every player on the Aces team, including the water boy, plays defense first so getting to the Alaska net just wasn't gloing to happen. Game 2 was a little different as it took OT for the Aces to beat the Wings. Suffice to say that K-Zoo demonstrated why they are in the finals for the Kelly Cup in this game. The series shifts to Kalamazoo starting on Wednesday for game three. I expect the rest of the way is going to be a dog fight. Glad that the Aces have a two game lead going to Kalamazoo.

http://www.alaskaaces.com/

Dan

[glen a richter]

Alaska playing Michigan for the East Coast Hockey League championship.

Geography Fail.

[210]

Alaska playing Michigan for the East Coast Hockey League championship.

Geography Fail.

It's not the "East Coast Hockey League" anymore...the letters ECHL no longer stand for anything and are the official name of the league.

No, I'm not kidding.

[DanAKAL]

It does seem strange for Alaska and Michigan to compete in a league that was at one time the East Coast Hockey League. Several years ago the East Coast Hockey League and West Coast Hockey League were disbanded and now fall under the same umbrella league known simply as the "ECHL".

[DanAKAL]

The Aces aren't playing for the Kelly Cup anymore this year. They won it Saturday night in Kalamazoo. This is the second time the Aces have won the cup. The first was in the 2005-2006 series when Davis Payne was the head coach in Alaska. The coach this year is Brent Thompson who was an assistant in Peoria under Davis before coming to Alaska as head coach. The Aces have been the class of the ECHL for almost the entire year and it really showed in the playoffs. Kalamazoo has a very good team and handed the Aces their only loss in the playoffs. On the way to winning the cup Alaska swept the other two opponents they faced and ended the season in the finals 5-1 against the Kwings. I am really hoping that we keep the players of this years Aces team in the Blues organization. There are some really good rookie and sophmore stand outs on the Aces that will be at least in the AHL next year. Davis Payne was at the game in Michigan Saturday when the Aces won the cup and I'm sure he liked what he saw. Hopefully, he was doing some scouting. For now the Aces are the ECHL champs. Gonna try to get some of this energy funneled to Peoria and ultimately the Blues.

Dan

[glen a richter]

Thank heavens someone in this organization can win championships.

[big d note]

Congrats to the Aces!! Thanks for the updates Dan!

Kelly

[Ruutu15]

I actually love the ECHL. It's pretty good hockey live, and the ticket prices are always on time. Go Cyclones!