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.

Congrats to rookie defenseman Bryant Molle of Anchorage, who along with his Fort Wayne Komets teammates tonight captured the Central Hockey League's Presidents' Cup with a clinching 6-3 win over Wichita.

The Komets won the best-of-7 series in five games and went 12-6 in the playoffs. That run included a seven-game victory over Missouri in the previous round, when the Komets won Games 6 and 7 to advance to the Finals.

Molle played in 16 playoff games, with 1-4--5 totals after going 1-5--6 in 60 regular-season games.

After dropping their opener Thursday at the North American Hockey League's Robertson Cup, the defending champion Fairbanks Ice Dogs have racked two wins to advance to Monday's semifinals.

The Ice Dogs today beat Port Huron 4-3 after knocking off Amarillo 3-1 on Friday.

In the U.S. Hockey League, Waterloo goaltender Stephon Williams of Fairbanks bagged his first playoff shutout -- 23 saves -- tonight in a 5-0 win over visiting Lincoln that gives Waterloo a 2-1 edge in the best-of-5 entering Monday's Game 4 in Waterloo.

Just like the Las Vegas Wranglers dispatched the Alaska Aces in five games in the ECHL's Western Conference finals, the Florida Everblades tonight dismissed the Kalamazoo K-Wings (the club Alaska beat in five games in the Kelly Cup Finals last season) with a 3-1 victory that ended the Eastern Conference finals in five games.

So that makes Las Vegas-Florida in the best-of-7, Kelly Cup Finals.

Whoever wins that series will take home the first Cup in the franchise's history -- Las Vegas lost to Cincy in 2008, and Florida lost to Trenton in 2005 and Idaho in 2004.

Anchorage's Nate Thompson and Joey Crabb, friends since they were kids, helped Team USA beat Canada, 5-4 in OT, today at the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland.

Thompson's third-period goal off a primary assist from Crabb gave the Americans a 4-3 lead before Duncan Keith tied it late for Canada. Defenseman and team captain Jack Johnson scored his second goal of the game, 1:47 into extra time, to give the Americans the win.

Thompson, the Tampa Bay Lightning center, is an alternate captain for Team USA. He and Crabb, the Toronto Maple Leafs winger, were both +1 today.

Just a quick thought before settling into the couch for some quality Philly-New Jersey time on the first day of the "offseason'' following the Alaska Aces' elimination from the ECHL's Kelly Cup playoffs with Wednesday night's 3-1 loss to Las Vegas, which wrapped the Western Conference finals in five games.

In eight previous ECHL seasons, the 2011 Kelly Cup champion Aces have twice won the Cup, been beaten once in the Finals and three times lost in the playoffs to the eventual Cup winners. Also, in 2008, the Aces lost out to Las Vegas, which went to the Finals and lost to Cincy.

Defenseman Brian Cooper of Anchorage, headed to Nebraska-Omaha in the fall as a true freshman following three seasons in the USHL, is one of 105 players invited to NHL Central Scouting's Draft Combine, which begins later this month in Montreal.

The Fairbanks Ice Dogs, reigning Robertson Cup champs in the NAHL, lost their Cup opener today in Frisco, Texas, falling 3-1 to the St. Louis Bandits.

Tayler Munson scored just 35 seconds into the match for the Ice Dogs, who thereafter were held in check by St. Louis goaltendeer Spencer Viele (32 saves).

In other NAHL news, the Palmer-based Alaska Avalanche are history, now that the franchise has been acquired by Pennsylvania interests and will move to Johnstown. You get the details by clicking here.

We'll keep it tight tonight -- it's been a long season, and it's over for the Alaska Aces after their 3-1 loss tonight to Las Vegas earned the Wranglers the ECHL's Western Conference title in five games.

So ends the Aces' defense of the Kelly Cup they captured last season for the second time in franchise history. So ends the quest for a fourth trip to the Kelly Cup Finals.

Las Vegas was simply a better team, more dynamic, deeper, and as three straight wins at Sullivan Arena proved, deserving.

The Fairbanks Ice Dogs, the North American Hockey League's reigning champs, defend their Robertson Cup title this week in Frisco, Texas, and today they cleaned up on the circuit's All-West Division honors, furnishing three of the guys on that six-player team.

Check out the dudes honored by division coaches and general managers:

If the Alaska Aces are to have a puncher's chance of extending their ECHL Western Conference finals series against the Las Vegas Wranglers, who lead 3-1 in the best-of-7 heading into tonight's Game 5 at Sullivan Arena, it figures they will almost certainly need some scoring punch from their top players.

That formula has Las Vegas poised to make its second trip to the Kelly Cup Finals (the Wranglers lost in six games to Cincinnati in 2008).

Various reports out of Montreal say the Canadiens next month will buy out the remaining two years of center Scott Gomez of Anchorage's mega-contract.

Gomez still has two years and $10 million left on a 7-year, $51.5 million deal he signed with the New York Rangers. The way capgeek.com figures it, the buyout would bring Gomez $6.67 million.

For what it's worth, with the Alaska Aces facing an elimination game tonight at Sullivan Arena against the Las Vegas Wranglers in Game 5 of the ECHL's Western Conference finals -- Vegas owns a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 -- here's how both clubs have done in their ECHL franchise history is such situations.

The Alaska Aces now stare at the potential end of their ECHL hockey season.

The Las Vegas Wranglers' 3-2 win in Game 4 tonight at Sullivan Arena -- and it was only a one-goal game because Alaska defenseman Chad Anderson scored an extra-attacker goal with five seconds left -- gave the Wranglers a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 Western Conference finals.

Game 5 is Wednesday night, and the Aces must win to force Game 6 at Sullivan on Friday, and then must win that match to force a Game 7 back in Vegas, where the teams split the first two games of the series.