In his last junior hockey game before heading to college, goaltender Stephon Williams of Fairbanks came out on the tough end -- his Waterloo Black Hawks were beaten 5-2 by the Green Bay Gamblers tonight in decisive Game 5 of the USHL's Clark Cup Finals.

Williams stopped 28 of 32 shots (empty netter for the Gamblers).

He finished the playoffs 10-5 with a 2.28 goals-against average and .922 save percentage, plus one bagel. Gotta like his two-season playoff totals in the USHL -- 14-6, 2.27, .922.

Next stop for the former Alaska Player of the Year: Minnesota State-Mankato in the fall.

Well, that seemed deserved -- the Florida Everblades won the first ECHL Kelly Cup in franchise history with tonight's 3-2 overtime win in Game 5 over the visiting Las Vegas Wranglers.

After dropping the opener in the best-of-7 series, the Everblades rolled through four straight wins to win their first hardware in three trips to the Finals -- Florida lost in 2004 and 2005. (Hopefully, no one writes on of those third-time's-the-charm leads on their story -- but someone probably will; hey, we've all contributed some groaners over the years).

New York Rangers forward Brandon Dubinsky of Anchorage, who has missed the last 11 playoff games with a lower-body injury, is back in the lineup tonight in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the visiting New Jersey Devils.

A pair of Alaskans were selected today in the USHL's entry draft -- and both were picked by the Youngstown Phantoms.

Selected were center Ryan Schwalbe of Anchorage, who has been playing at Shattuck St. Mary's in Minnesota and is ticketed for Minnesota State-Mankato in 2013, and defenseman Alex Carle (the youngest of the three Carle brothers, all blueliners), who has been playing at Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire.

On-again, off-again Alaska Aces winger Chris Bruton, who started this past season with the ECHL club before earning promotion to AHL Peoria and then returning to the Aces when Peoria failed to make the playoffs, has agreed to a one-year AHL deal with Peoria.

He earned it the hard way -- by coming up from the ECHL, taking on all comers despite relative lack of size for fighting, and doing whatever it took (blocking shots, fighting, being a pest) to stick in the AHL.

Well, the Las Vegas Wranglers are up against it now.

And the Florida Everblades are just one win from hoisting hardware.

Florida earned its third consecutive win in the ECHL's Kelly Cup Finals, taking Game 4 tonight, 3-1, in Florida.

Game 5 is Wednesday in Florida. The Wranglers, who eliminated the Alaska Aces in the Western Conference finals, must win to get the series back to Sin City for Game 6 and a possible Game 7.

Defenseman Dax Lauwers, who started his college career with a season at Army before returning to the USHL this season, has committed to Northeastern University of Hockey East, according to Chris Heisenberg's excellent recruiting site.

Lauwers, 20, is a 6-foot-3, 220-pounder who this season for the Lincoln Stars played all 60 games and registered five assists and a -6 rating. In eight playoff games, he had one goal and a -6.

He spent the 2010-11 season with Army, going 1-2--3 in 33 games before returning to junior hockey.

Goaltender Stephon Williams of Fairbanks has one more hockey game left in his junior career -- the biggest one of all.

Williams stopped 21 shots tonight to backsto the Waterlook Black Hawks to a 5-3 victory over the Green Bay Gamblers, and that forces a decisive Game 5 Wednesday in Green Bay for the USHL's Clark Cup.

Williams, the former Alaska Player of the Year for Lathrop who is headed to Minnesota State-Mankato in the fall, in these playoffs is 10-4, with a 2.15 goals-against average,. 926 save percentage and one shutout.

Let's take a lap around the rinks.

The Florida Everblades went up 2-1 in the ECHL's best-of-7 Kelly Cup Finals tonight with a 4-3 overtime win against the visiting Las Vegas Wranglers -- Matt Marquardt, who Alaska Aces fans may remember helped eliminate that club in the first round in 2010, when he was with Stockton, authored the OT strike.

In the NHL, New York Rangers forward Brandon Dubinsky is back skating for the first time in nearly a month after being out with a lower-body injury. No word when he'll be ready to go, but it is at least encouraging he's back on blades.

Interesting move afoot in local youth hockey -- the Alaska Junior Aces will become a Tier I elite program offering AAA teams at the U-18, U-16 and U-14 levels, with coaches who have deep backgrounds in local pucks.

The aim of the program, said Jerry Mackie, one of the Alaska Aces' owners and a Jr. Aces board of directors member, is to get the best Alaska players in these age groups all playing together to drive their development and compete nationally.

The ECHL, which includes the Alaska Aces, added two more teams today when it announced the Fort Wayne Komets and Evansville IceMen, both of whom previously played in the Central Hockey League, have been approved as expansion members for the 2012-13 season.

With the previously announced addition of expansion teams in Orlando and San Francisco, plus the demise of the Chicago franchise after just one season, the ECHL will have 23 teams next season.

Tough exit for Team USA, which includes forwards Joey Crabb and Nate Thompson of Anchorage, today at the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland.

The Americans fell 3-2 in the quarterfinals to the host Finns, who scored the game-winning strike with just 8.8 seconds left. Finland scored twice in the last seven minutes -- ouch.

Crabb had an assist on the game and was +1 with one shot in 13:44 of ice time. Thompson was -3 with one shot in 11:26.

UAA has added a local to its roster -- forward Bobby Murphy of Anchorage will join the Seawolves in the fall, according to Chris Heisenberg's recruiting site.

Murphy, 20, played the last two seasons with the Kenai River Brown Bears of the North American Hockey League.

Last season, he put up 10-19--29 and -4 totals in 47 regular-season games. In two seasons with Kenai, he played 102 regular-season games with 22-37--59 and -20 totals.

After the Las Vegas Wranglers landed the first blow in the ECHL's Kelly Cup Finals with Monday night's 2-1 series-opening win, the Florida Everblades answered tonight with a wicked counterattack to bag a 7-2 win in Game 2 of the best-of-7.

Man, Wranglers goaltender Joe Fallon must have looked mortal for a change. He gave up all seven goals, on just 28 shots.

And, not to put too fine a point on it, Las Vegas led 2-0 less than 16 minutes into the game before getting thoroughly whacked.

So, basically, the Everblades have stolen home-ice advantage. Game 3 is Friday in Florida.

The Las Vegas Wranglers racked their fifth straight win Monday night, beating the visiting Florida Everblades, 2-1, in the opener of the ECHL's Kelly Cup Finals.

Some usual suspects shined: Joe Fallon furnished 32 saves and Eric Lampe scored one goal and set up the other to give the Wranglers the win at Orleans Arena, where Game 2 is tonight.

Fallon in the playoffs is 7-1 with a 1.22 goals-against average and .955 save percentage. Lampe owns 7-11--18 totals in 14 playoff games.

Sunday brought the end of the line this season for defenseman William Wrenn of Anchorage and Josh Hanson of Eagle River -- their Portland Winterhawks team lost Game 7 of the Western Hockey League Finals, 4-1 at Edmonton.

Both Wrenn and Hanson played all 22 playoff games for the Winterhawks, and both went +4. Wrenn, a San Jose Sharks draft pick, had four assists.

Let's get caught up -- there's a bunch of playoffs going on, ya know.

In the AHL, former Alaska Aces bench boss and captain Keith McCambridge, now rookie bench boss of the St. John's IceCaps, has his club in the Eastern Conference Finals, which open Thursday at Norfolk. St. John's on Saturday beat Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 2-1 in Game 7 of that series to advance. Former UAA winger Kevin Clark is on the IceCaps -- he's played two games, no points, even rating, in these playoffs.

The Fairbanks Ice Dogs' defense of their 2011 Robertson Cup as champions of the North American Hockey League came to a close tonight with a 4-3 OT loss to Texas in the Robertson Cup semifinals in Frisco, Texas.

Texas scored 16:39 into OT.

Sunday, Ice Dogs forwards Gabe Levin and J.T. Osborn, and defenseman Sean O'Rourke, were all named to the All-NAHL team -- that's three of the six positions -- and Fairbanks' Rob Proffitt was named general manager of the year for the second straight season.

Texas will play St. Louis in the championship game.

Winger William Rapuzzi of Anchorage, who will be a senior in the fall, has been named captain at Colorado College in a unanimous vote by his teammates.

Rapuzzi, 22, last season earned 3-12--15 totals in 35 games, and in 109 career games for the Tigers owns 24-28--52 totals.

Also, defenseman William Wrenn of Anchorage, a San Jose Sharks draft pick who began a college career at Denver before heading to the Western Hockey League, is in the WHL Finals with the Portland Winterhawks, who own a 2-1 lead over Edmonton in the best-of-7 series entering Tuesday night's Game 4.

Waterloo goaltender Stephon Williams racked 29 saves tonight to spearhead a 6-2 win over Lincoln that gave the Black Hawks the Western Conference finals in four games -- the series was best-of-5 -- and deliver them into the U.S. Hockey League's Clark Cup Finals.

Williams didn't surrender a goal until the third period -- that, combined with his 5-0 win in Game 3, gave him a shutout streak to 98 minutes, 15 seconds. He's 8-2 in the playoffs, with a 2.21 goals-against average and .925 save percentage. Williams is headed to Minnesota State-Mankato in the fall.