Relentless Aces put Wranglers loss from ouster

No team in ECHL history has overcome a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series.

To keep their season alive, the Wranglers will have to become the first to do so.

"I heard a saying the other day, 'How do you eat an elephant?' " Las Vegas coach Glen Gulutzan said. "One bite at a time. That's what we're up against. One bite at a time."

Alaska took a big chomp out of the Wranglers on Tuesday, dealing them a 3-1 loss in Game 3 of the National Conference finals in front of 3,612 at the Orleans Arena.

Josh Soares scored the tiebreaking goal with 4:11 to play, putting the Aces firmly in control of the best-of-7 series.

Cam Keith set up the decisive goal, skating into the left circle before dropping a pass in the slot for Soares, who fired the puck between the pads of Glenn Fisher, who stopped 36 of 38 shots.

"It was a good game. It could've went either way," Gulutzan said. "The game came down to one shot and they got it."

Matt Stefanishion added an empty-net goal with 36 seconds left for the final margin.

Las Vegas took its first lead of the series when Tyler Mosienko scored from the slot with 4:12 remaining in the first period to make it 1-0.

Mike Hamilton set up the play, centering a pass from near the boards, and Mosienko ripped the puck past Aces goalie and ECHL regular-season Most Valuable Player J.P. Lamoureux on his stick side.

But that was the only goal allowed by Lamoureux, who stopped 33 of 34 shots Tuesday and has turned away 74 of 76 in the series.

"We got the first one tonight and we maybe laid back a little bit and thought it was just going to be smooth sailing from there," Mosienko said. "That's kind of the feeling I got, but it's not. It's playoff hockey and you can be up 4-0 and you still have to keep everything tight."

The Aces took advantage of a turnover by the Wranglers to tie it 1-1 at the 2:46 mark of the second period. Vladimir Novak stole the puck from Wranglers defenseman Steve Makway behind the net, then skated out front and stuffed the puck past Fisher.

"That was a little bit of a mistake, but we had a lot of time to rebound," Gulutzan said. "We needed to get a 2-1 lead."

Las Vegas had plenty of chances to score, but continued to struggle on the power play, going 0-for-7 to drop to 0-for-18 for the series.

Alaska, which has one of the top penalty-killing units in the league, also went 0-for-7 on the power play, and both teams squandered two-minute two-man advantages.

"We had some chances, we were just off that little bit," Mosienko said. "We could've had a little more zip in our passes and our shots and the plays we were making out there."

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354.