After three seasons in junior hockey, defenseman Brad Gorham of Anchorage has committed to play his college hockey at Ohio State.

Gorham, 20, furnished the Alberni Valley Bulldogs of the British Columbia Hockey League with 17-21—38 totals in 57 games this season. He also played in the BCHL last season, and spent a season before that in the North American Hockey League.

Gorham played at Service High, and for the Anchorage Hockey Association North Stars and the Anchorage Junior Aces.

After losing 13 of their previous 16 games and nearly falling off the playoff map, the Peoria Rivermen of the American Hockey League finally found a gear other than reverse Tuesday night.

Peoria, the affiliate of the Alaska Aces, straight up bum-rushed the host Houston Aeros, 8-2, and former Aces winger Charles Linglet had a big hand in the torch job. Linger the Winger went off for two goals and three assists, and was +3 in the demolition. With 31-27—58 totals in 67 games, Linger is tied for ninth in the league in goals. Presumably, the St. Louis Blues, who signed Linger to a contract earlier this season, will give him a nice look in camp in the fall.

Alaska Aces enforcer Hans Benson, on call-up to the Peoria Rivermen of the American Hockey League, sat out games Saturday and Sunday with a rib injury.

The 6-foot, 210-pound Benson absorbed a wicked check into the boards by Houston’s Shawn Belle (6-1, 235) in Peoria’s 6-3 loss in Houston on Friday night. He sat out a 6-3 loss in San Antonio on Saturday and a 1-0 loss in San Antonio on Sunday. The Rivermen next play Tuesday in Houston, and they are running out of time to get their act together – they have lost 13 of their last 16 games and sit five points behind Grand Rapids and six behind Iowa in the race for the last playoff spot in the West.

The Carles of Anchorage have enjoyed a pretty sweet week.

Usually, the focus is on the oldest of the three Carle boys, Matt, a 22-year-old puckheads just may have heard of: NHL rookie stud as the league’s top-scoring first-year blueliner, Hobey Baker winner, owner of two national championship rings, winner of the World Junior Championship and several other prestigious tournaments. Sunday, he furnished an assist for the San Jose Sharks in a 6-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings to give him 11-30—41 totals in 74 games.

For those die-hard Alaska Aces fans hoping the Peoria Rivermen, the team’s affiliate in the American Hockey League, tank it bad enough to miss the playoffs and thus enable the Aces to get some players back, a former Ace helped your hopes Saturday night.

Center Alex Leavitt, who was the ECHL scoring champ and Rookie of the Year for the Aces last season, scored two goals for San Antonio in a 6-3 win over visiting Peoria on Saturday night. The Rivermen have taken quite a plunge: They’ve lost 12 of their last 15 and are four games out of a playoff spot with eight games to go and one game in hand.

Check out the chops on erstwhile UAA Seawolves center Jay Beagle.

It hasn’t taken the kid long to warm to this pro hockey gig. Beagle, who debuted as pay-for-play type last week with the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads, got all prolific over the weekend. He contributed points on six consecutive Idaho goals, racking up his first goal and two assists in a 4-3 shootout loss to visiting Long Beach on Friday, then assisting on the team’s first three goals Saturday night in a 4-2 win over Long Beach in Boise.

New Jersey Devils center Scott Gomez of Anchorage -- aka The King of Airport Heights -- left the team’s 3-1 win over Philadelphia just one shift into the second period Friday with what was reported to be a bruised thigh.

That’s the best-case scenario. Hopefully, the injury isn’t a recurrence of the groin strain he suffered earlier this season and shelved him for eight games. With only four games left in the regular season, a groin injury could be especially troublesome with the playoffs approaching. And groin problems have plagued the Devils, and particularly Gomez’s EGG line, this season.

Hmm, stick around Fairbanks and get ready for a senior season with the UAF Nanooks or turn pro and make a pay-for-play debut in the NHL without a pesky stop in the minor leagues?

Talk about your no-brainers. Defenseman Darcy Campbell chose the latter, and Friday night he stepped right into the world’s best hockey league, making his pro debut for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Campbell, 22, who furnished the Nanooks with 4-20—29 totals in 39 games during his recently concluded junior year with the Nanooks, debuted against host Chicago. The game is in progress in the first period as this is written.

New Jersey Devils center Scott Gomez leads our rink roundup tonight, courtesy of his one goal and one assist in a 4-3 loss in Buffalo, which gives Gomez 450 career points in 545 NHL games.

The King of Airport Heights owns 116-334—450 totals in the world’s best league. This season, he owns 13-47—60 totals in 69 games.

Meanwhile, in the American Hockey League on Wednesday night, former Alaska Aces sniper Chris Minard earned an assist for Lowell in a 4-2 win at Springfield. Minard leads the Devils’ affilate in goals, points and power-play goals with 27-15—42 totals in 56 games, and 11 power-play goals. He ranks tied for 18th in the league in goals and tied for 11th in power-play markers.

The ECHL-leading Alaska Aces have help on the way heading into a critical showdown with the Las Vegas Wranglers this weekend in Nevada.

The Aces’ affiliate in the American Hockey League, the Peoria Rivermen, on Wednesday returned rookie winger Kevin Croxton to the Aces, and also sent down rugged defenseman Zack FitzGerald.

Welcome to scoreboard watching in the Internet Age, where live updates are just a mouse click away.

That was the drill for Davis Payne on Tuesday night, when the bench boss of the ECHL-leading Alaska Aces planned to keep the keyboard humming at home to track two hockey games with postseason repercussions for his club.

Las Vegas’ 4-3 shootout win over visiting Bakersfield was basically the worst outcome possible for the Aces — both teams earned points, and Las Vegas pocketed the two points.

Defenseman Kerry Weiland of Palmer on Tuesday was one of seven blueliners named to Team USA for next month's 2007 Women's World Championship in Winnipeg and Selkirk, Manitoba.

Weiland, 26, a former All-American at Wisconsin, has been playing for the Etobicoke Dolphins in the National Women's Hockey League in Canada.

USA Hockey named seven defensemen, 11 forwards and three goaltenders to the national team -- one of those goalies will be cut soon to bring the team down to the 20-player limit.

The world championship begins April 3. In the meantime, Team USA is training in Grand Forks, N.D.

Three of the four Alaskans playing in the Western Hockey League playoffs have already made their mark on the opening weekend of the major-junior circuit’s postseason.

Rookie winger Erik Felde of Anchorage assisted on the game-tying goal Saturday for the Tri-City Americans in their 2-1 win over the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds. That deadlocked the seven-game series at 1-1. Felde, 19, finished 10th in rookie scoring during the 72-game regular season, notching 24-28—52 totals in 72 games. With a plus-minus rating of +24, Felde also finished 15th in the league in that category. Seattle includes hulking winger Isak Quackenbush of Fairbanks, who is only 16 but goes 6-foot-4, 223 pounds. Quackenbush, who has not yet played in the playoffs, went 1-1—2 in 51 games during his rookie campaign.

San Jose Sharks rookie defenseman Matt Carle of Anchorage earned his third franchise record Saturday.

Carle’s power-play assist on Bill Guerin’s goal was Carle’s 40th point of the season, setting a Sharks record for single-season points by a rookie defenseman. Carle previously set team records for goals by a rookie defenseman (11) and power-play goals by a rookie (8).

Carle broke the point record previously held by Marcus Ragnarsson, the Swedish blueliner who posted 8-31—39 totals in 71 games in 1995-96.

Carle owns 11-29—40 totals in 70 games (and that could get better, San Jose trails 3-1 at Carolina in the second period as this is written; um, make that 4-1 now). Carle also has racked up 4-10—14 totals in the last 14 games.

The Interior Conference Finals in the British Columbia Hockey League shapes up in part as a battle of Alaskans – the Vernon Vipers have four players from here and the Penticton Vees have three.

Vernon advanced to the third round in the chase for the Fred Page Cup by virtue of series-clinching 2-1 win Friday over the Trail Smoke Eaters, who had four Alaskans on the roster. Vernon’s Alaska connection rocked – Hunter Bishop of Fairbanks scored the Vipers’ first goal and assisted on the game winner by defenseman Jon Smith of Sterling, which earned Vernon the series, 4-1. Bishop’s goal was his 11th in 11 playoff games, tying him for the league lead. Vernon also includes defenseman Derek Bradish of Fairbanks and goaltender Steve Thompson of Anchorage.

On the face of it, the Alaska Aces’ six-point lead with six games to go in the chase for the Brabham Cup as ECHL regular-season champions seems like a cozy cushion as these things go.

But the defending Kelly Cup champs, and defending Brabham Cup-holders, are beset by injuries, burdened by call-ups to the AHL and facing a tough road down the stretch run to the playoffs. They’re a thin, tired bunch – they dressed just 14 skaters in a 2-1 shootout loss in Idaho on Friday. But they’re also resilient as hell – witness Friday’s loss, in which Idaho scored during a 5-on-3 advantage with less than three minutes left in regulation on a dubious tripping call against Alaska defenseman Corbin Schmidt. And witness goalie Derek Gustafson’s sensational 46-save effort.

In his first game back in the American Hockey League since a six-game debut in the NHL, rookie center Brandon Dubinsky of Anchorage shined for the Harford Wolf Pack.

Dubinsky, 20, scored one of his team’s goals and assisted on the other in a 5-2 loss to visiting Worcester on Friday. Dubinsky has three goals and two assists in his last three games for Hartford and owns 15-17—32 totals in 59 games.

Also in the ‘A,’ former Alaska Aces sniper Chris Minard just kept doing his thing – scoring goals. Minard pocketed his team-high 27th for the Lowell Devils in their 3-2 shootout loss at Portland. In Binghampton, occasional Aces defenseman Stephen Wood helped the Bridgeport Sound Tigers spoil the pro debut of former Wisconsin goalie Brian Elliott. Wood, who owns 1-4—5 totals in seven games since being loaned to the Tigers by the Peoria Rivermen, scored his first goal in 23 AHL games this season and added an assist in a 6-2 win. Elliott checked in with 34 saves.

Center Jay Beagle officially became a former member of the UAA Seawolves on Friday – he made his pro debut for the Idaho Steelheads of the ECHL.

Beagle debuted against the Alaska Aces in Boise, Idaho. Beagle’s departure after his sophomore season leaves a big hole in the UAA lineup, not just literally (after all, he’s 6-3, 210) but figuratively. Beagle earned 10-10—20 totals in 36 games this season to finish in a tie for third on the team in goals and points. With Beagle gone and Charlie Kronschnabel (6-4, 210 or so) gone – Kronschnabel exhausted his eligibility after four seasons and is playing for Reading of the ECHL – Seawolves coach Dave Shyiak has lost his two big centermen.

San Jose Sharks rookie defenseman Matt Carle of Anchorage just keeps sticking himself into the team record book.

Carle, who already owns franchise marks for goals by a rookie defenseman (11) and power-play goals by a rookie (8), on Wednesday night entered the record book by tying the mark for points by a rookie defenseman (39, shared by Marcus Ragnarsson, 1995-96).

Carle notched two power-play assists in the Sharks’ 4-1 win at Chicago, which gives him 11-28—39 totals in 69 games this season. He’s on quite a streak, too – he owns 4-9—13 totals in the last 13 games.

No doubt there’s a kid from Fairbanks catching some good-natured grief from his teammates in British Columbia today.

They’re probably calling him “Hat Trick’’ Hunter. Presumably, Hunter Bishop of Fairbanks will take that teasing any day. Bishop on Tuesday night furnished a hat trick that included a late game-tying goal and the overtime game winner for the Vernon Vipers, who scored a 4-3 overtime win to take a 3-1 lead over Trail in the second round of the British Columbia Hockey League playoffs.