Emptying Out The Kelly Cup Finals Notebook

Overall, the Alaska Aces' record-setting, penalty-killing unit has been dinged by South Carolina's potent power play in the ECHL Kelly Cup Finals, but the Aces' short-handed crew at least is on the right track.

After surrendering a power-play strike to the Stingrays in each of the first four games of the Finals, the Aces have killed the Stingrays' last nine power-play chances. Still, South Carolina's league-leading 21.4-percent power-play efficiency in the playoffs includes a 23.6-percent success ratio against the Aces. (South Carolina in the regular season was fractionally second on the circuit in power-play efficiency at 22.0 percent).

When South Carolina's Jeff Corey scored with the man advantage less than six minutes into the Stingrays' 5-0 Game 4 win in North Charleston, the Stingrays were 4 for 8 on the power play to that point in the Finals. Since then, the Aces have killed nine straight South Carolina power plays -- the Stingrays' last seven in Game 4 and their two in Alaska's 3-2 OT win in Game 5. (Unless you've been under a rock or on an extended bender, South Carolina leads 3-2 in the best-of-7 Finals entering Game 6 Thursday night at Sullivan Arena).

Aces coach Keith McCambridge said his penalty killers have finally stopped over-committing against a power play he said is the best, particularly at quickly and accurately moving the puck, his club has faced all season.

"They can exploit any hole you leave them,'' McCambridge said.

The Aces set an ECHL record in the regular season with 89.3-percent penalty-killing efficiency. Though that number is just 78.6 percent against South Carolina, the Aces in the entire playoffs have killed 89.5 percent of short-handed situations.

Moving on, Corey leads scorers in the Finals with 5-2--7 totals, Stingrays center Travis Morin (0-6--6) is second, and South Carolina's Maxime Lacroix (5-0--5) and Trent Campbell (1-4--5) are tied for third. Winger Josh Soares (0-4--4) leads the Aces, and winger Cam Keith (1-2--3) and defenseman Ryan Turek (0-3--3) are tied for second, and a bunch of guys are tied for fourth on the club -- deadlocked are wingers Colin Hemingway (2-0--2), Scott Burt (2-0--2) and Lance Galbraith (1-1--2), and defensemen T.J. Fast (0-2--2) and Derick Martin (0-2--2).

Eight different Stingrays have scored goals in the Finals, and seven different Aces.

Given the rotation Stingrays coach Jared Bednar has used throughout the playoffs -- one goalie plays until he loses, then Bednar switches to the other guy -- expect Jonathan Boutin in goal in Game 6. Rookie James Reimer was fantastic in Game 5 (39 saves), but lost. Boutin won Game 1 with 25 saves in a 4-2 victory and lost Game 2 with 27 saves in a 3-1 setback that included an Aces empty-net goal.

The Stingrays are traveling today, with the club arriving in Anchorage in groups roughly around midnight tonight. The 'Rays are scheduled to practice at Sullivan on Wednesday.

Speaking of travel, most of the Aces' return flights home started with a 6 a.m. journey from Charleston to Washington, D.C., Sunday morning. That plane was an Embraer 145, which has a particularly low doorway and a low ceiling in the fuselage. As 6-foot-5 Aces defenseman Nick Tuzzolino stood second-in-line at the doorway after climbing the stairs from the tarmac, he looked directly over the top of the plane.

In front of Tuzzolino was 6-foot-3 winger Matt Stefanishion. Said Tuzzolino: "Get ready to duck.''