Goaltender Chris Beckford-Tseu, who helped the ECHL’s Alaska Aces to the Kelly Cup in 2006 and was unbeaten in brief work for them last season, will be back here this season.

The Peoria Rivermen, Alaska’a affiliate in the American Hockey League, assigned Beckford-Tseu to the Aces on Sunday night. His addition will give the Aces goaltending that is, well, insanely stingy.

Center Brandon Dubinsky of Anchorage scored a power-play goal and center Scott Gomez of Anchorage assisted on the game winner Saturday night to lead the New York Rangers to a 3-2 NHL exhibition road win against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Word should come down in the next few days whether Dubinsky, 21, will make the Rangers’ 23-man roster to start the season. He had two shots and won 5 of 8 face-offs in 10 minutes of ice Saturday. Gomez, the veteran playmaker, fired five shots and won 13 of 24 face-offs – pretty sure he’ll crack the lineup because, well, they’re paying him $10 million this season.

New York Rangers center Scott Gomez of Anchorage scored one goal and assisted on another Friday night in a 5-2 NHL exhibition victory over a watered-down New York Islanders lineup.

After playing two games with all-world Jaromir Jagr on his wing, Gomez centered Brendan Shanahan (two goals) and Nigel Dawes (three assists). Gomez has goals in his last two exhibition games.

Meanwhile, Rangers teammate Brandon Dubinsky of Anchorage, literally fought to secure his place in the season-opening lineup, squaring off with Islanders blueliner Aaron Johnson. (One blog report I read indicated Dubinsky went down early in the fight, but got back up to rock Johnson with some lefts. Curiously, on the NHL website, Dubinsky was credited for two fighting majors in that dance – presumably, that’s a inputting computer error. Either that, or the kid went snap-city).

Former UAA and Alaska Aces goaltender John DeCaro, the Central Hockey League’s Goaltender of the Year last season, is in camp with the San Antonio Rampage of the American Hockey League.

DeCaro, who last season played two games in the ‘A’ with the Philadelphia Phantoms and shined for the CHL’s Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs (love that handle), is under contract with the Mudbugs for this season.

When they were UAA Seawolves, Charlie Kronschnabel, Chad Anderson and Justin Bourne shared digs at Kronschanbel’s house.

The first-year pros have scattered since then, but they’re still not too far apart – all three are on the Eastern Seaboard, navigating the tenuous tides of the numbers game and battling for spots in the American Hockey League.

To catch a short interview Boomer Esiason conducted with New York Rangers free-agent signees Scott Gomez and Chris Drury at the Madison Square Garden’s studio on Wednesday, click here.

Granted, it’s only the NHL exhibition season, which doesn’t mean a ton for veterans, but even happy-go-lucky, what, me-worry? New York Rangers center Scott Gomez of Anchorage can’t be real psyched about the results of his first two tilts with the Blueshirts.

The Red Wings pounded the visiting Rangers 6-1 on Tuesday night with Gomez preventing the shutout courtesy of a late power-play goal. In two games, he and all-world winger Jaromir Jagr have yet to completely click – the Rangers lost 5-0 to the Flyers in the other game Scotty played.

At the rate center Brandon Dubinsky of Anchorage is going in the NHL preseason, he seems a decent bet to start the season with the New York Rangers.

Dubinsky, who last season made his NHL debut with the Blueshirts as a rookie, furnished two assists in his first exhibition game of the season last week. Then Monday night, when the Rangers’ 5-4 road loss to the New York Islanders turned into a 165-penalty minute Gong Show – at one point, even the goalies threw down! – the 6-foot-1, 205-pound Dubinsky took on 6-6, 245-pound Islanders defenseman Andy Sutton. (You can check out their relatively uneventful dance here).

More Alaska-connected players got ticketed from the NHL to the American Hockey League over the weekend.

The Pittsburgh Penguins sent goaltender Ty Conklin of Anchorage, winger Tim Wallace of Anchorage and former Alaska Aces sniper Chris Minard to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the ‘A.’ The Minnesota Wild dropped former UAF Nanooks winger Aaron Voros to Houston. And the Chicago Blackhawks shipped former Nanooks defenseman Jordan Hendry to Rockford. Also, the Phoenix Coyotes sent former Aces forward Alex Leavitt to San Antonio.

Center Brandon Dubinsky of Anchorage, bubble-boy for making the New York Rangers opening-season roster, made an impressive 2007 NHL exhibition debut Friday night – at least it impressed me as much as you can be impressed by a score sheet.

Dubinsky recorded two assists, both primary helpers at Madison Square Garden, in the Rangers’ 4-3 win over New Jersey. (Note: Rangers center Scott Gomez, the erswhile Devil, did not play. He’s scheduled to play tonight against Philadelphia).

OK, Cowbell Crew, if you can't wait until the exhibition games to get your Alaska Aces fix, here's the team's training-camp schedule.

Practice sessions are open to the public, and free. Be forewarned, sessions are also subject to change.

Here it is:

Oct. 7 — Practice, Ben Boeke Arena, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Oct. 8 — Practice, Ben Boeke, 10 a.m.-noon.
Oct. 9 — Practice, Ben Boeke, 10 a.m.-noon.
Oct. 10 — Exhibition game vs. Texas Wildcatters, Sullivan Arena, 7:15 p.m.
Oct. 11 — Exhibition game vs. Texas Wildcatters, Sullivan, 7:15 p.m. Oct. 12 — Practice, Ben Boeke, 10 a.m.-noon.

At this point on the hockey calendar, nearly every day is Moving Day, with plenty of players getting the axe from NHL training camps and shipped to the minor leagues.

So it was Wednesday and Thursday, when a number of players with Alaska connections were dropped down to American Hockey League camps.

The St. Louis Blues dispatched four former Alaska Aces to the AHL’s Peoria Rivermen: Julian Talbot, Charles Linglet, Cam Keith and Hans Benson. Also sent down were forwards F.P. Guenette and Tim Spencer, both of whom might end up with the Aces.

Former Alaska Aces bruiser Patrick Wellar is moving from one coast to the other after signing with the Columbia (S.C.) Inferno of the ECHL.

Wellar, 24, spent most of last season with the Aces, and helped them to the Kelly Cup in 2006. He played 21 games with Peoria of the American Hockey League last season.

Wellar teamed with fellow defenseman Zack FitzGerald last season to give the Aces a pair of “shut-down’’ defensemen often asked to hold opponents’ top lines in check. They did an admirable job of that, combining muscle and snarl.

The NHL’s Minnesota Wild made big training-camp cuts Wednesday, and winger Moises Gutierrez of Anchorage was one of the casualties while former UAF winger Aaron Voros was one of the survivors.

Looks like Gutierrez, a former Pittsburgh draft pick who entered camp on a tryout contract after a 35-goal season in the WHL, is ticketed to Houston of the American Hockey League. the Wild cut 15 players from camp.

A couple of guys with Alaska connections played for the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 5-2 NHL exhibition win against the Montreal Canadians on Tuesday night.

Former Alaska Aces sniper Chris Minard registered an assist and two shots on goal in just 10:06 of ice time. And Tim Wallace of Anchorage, who parlayed a tryout with Pittsburgh last season into a two-year contract over the recent off-season, was credited with two hits in 8:59 of ice.

Goaltender Adam Murray of Anchorage, a high-school junior playing for the Under-17 team in USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program, has committed to join the University of Denver in 2009, according to a recruiting web site.

Chris Heisenberg reported Murray’s commitment to the Pioneers on his web site today.

Murray, 16, is so highly regarded he was picked up by the Under-17 team midway through last season, when he was still just 15. He played part of last season for South High and for the Alaska All Stars before moving on to the NTDP in Ann Arbor, Mich.

With the season nearing, former Alaska Aces goaltender Isaac Reichmuth found a hockey home Tuesday: He hooked up with the Muskegon Fury, part of the rebranded International Hockey League, which used to be the United Hockey League.

Reichmuth went 13-5-4 for the Aces as Derek Gustafson’s rookie backup last season, with a 2.48 goals-against average and .910 save percentage. But Ike wanted to pursue a No. 1 tending job this season, so he parted ways with the Aces. Best of luck to him – good guy.

For what it’s worth, former Alaska Aces center Julian Talbot racked up an assist in a scrimmage Friday at St. Louis Blues training camp.

Talbot, who shined for Blues young ones at the 2007 NHL Prospects Development Camp in Michigan last week, set up Francois-Pierre Guenette for their team’s only goal. Guenette could end up with the Aces this season, and so could Talbot, though he’s making a mark in the organization in hopes of landing with the Peoria Rivermen, St. Louis’ American Hockey League affiliate.

In the estimation of Murray Townsend, who The Hockey News trumpets as its pucks fantasy pool guru, New York Rangers center Scott Gomez of Anchorage is headed for a career season.

Townsend not only predicts Gomez will rack up a career-high 87 points in his debut season on Broadway, but that he will author the biggest point increase of any player in the NHL over last season. Townsend pegs Gomez to finish with 24-63—87 totals, which would be 27 more points than he scored last season for the New Jersey Devils. (Gomez’s career high for points is 84 in 2005-06; that’s not counting his 86 points for the Alaska Aces in 2004-05 during the NHL lockout). He further predicts Gomez, who opened camp on a line Friday with Jaromir Jagr and Marcel Hossa, will finish 24th in the league in scoring.

Most NHL teams open training camps for real today and there’s no shortage of Alaskans and Alaska-connected players on various rosters – headlined, naturally, by The $10 Million-Dollar Man, aka Scott Gomez, who is pulling down that fat 2007-08 salary for the New York Rangers. (And, I hear he’s the same old Scotty, meaning he pretty much picked up every tab in Anchorage over the summer).

After scouring what Uncle Ted so eloquently referred to as that series of tubes – you might know it as the Internet – we’ve come up with 27 Alaska types who are in NHL main training camps (rookie camps don’t count).