Oct 30, 2016
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA – Peter Sivak banged in a rebound of his own shot 16 seconds into overtime, and Alaska fired 59 shots on goal as the Aces snagged a 5-4 victory over the Rapid City Rush Sunday afternoon at the Sullivan Arena.
The overtime was necessary after the Aces lost a 4-2 lead late in regulation.
Aces improve their record to 3-2-0-0 with the win, pulling into 5th place in the Mountain division, 4 points behind the Utah Grizzles and Colorado Eagles, tied for first place.
The Aces got on the board first as defenseman Ryan Trenz blasted a shot from the blue line past Rush netminder Kent Patterson at 2:35. Dax Lauwers and Stephen Perfetto assisited.
Rapid City tied the game at 1 three minutes later on a breakaway goal by Brayden Low, who slipped a backhand shot 5-hole on Aces goaltender Michael Garteig.
Tim Wallace restored the Aces lead at 5:40 with a scathing wrister from the slot off assists from Nolan Descoteaux and Tim Coffman.
Once again, the Rush tied the game with Ryan Misiak’s goal at 12:18.
Alaska was not finished scoring in the first period. Perfetto skated a puck through the neutral zone and let fly a canonading blast from just inside the blue line. The puck got by Patterson before he knew it, and the Aces skated off the ice leading 3-2.
In the second period, Ben Lake’s second goal of the season at 7:13 was a power forward move with finish. Lake took the puck out of the right corner, skated the goal line and stuffed the puck between Patterson’s leg pads and it was 4-2 Aces after 2 periods.
It looked like the Aces would win the game 4-2, but the Rush had other ideas, most notably former Ace Ryan Walters. With the goalie pulled and an extra attacker on, Walters banged a centering pass into the net at 18:41, and followed that with a pass to the front of the goal that deflected right to Nathan Moon who fired the puck into the net to tie the game with only 14 seconds to go.
On to overtime, and that’s where Sivak did his best work of the night. From the slot, Sivak took a pass from Perfetto and fired a shot on goal. Patterson blocked the shot, but Sivak pounced on the rebound and emphatically drove the puck home for the game winner just 16 seconds into the 3 on 3 extra period.
Patterson was busy to say the least. He stopped 54 of 59 shotsfired by Alaska, while Garteig made 21 saves on 25 shots.
Alaska took two of the three games in the series, winning 6-3 Friday before dropping a 5-1 verdict Saturday.
The Aces next play at Allen, Texas Saturday and Sunday November 5 and 6.
Source: Sivak overtime goal gives Aces a thrilling 5-4 win over Rush | alaskaaces.com
