"A Championship Season: The 2010-11 Alaska Aces" Preview

October 05, 2011|By Kevin Wells | Channel 2 Sports

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — "A Championship Season: The 2010-11 Alaska Aces" is a one-hour special retrospective at how the Aces captured their 2nd Kelly Cup title this year.

To tell the story as best we can, we start off by highlighting the Aces' previous championship season in 2006, and then proceed to delve into how the roster turned itself over a few times to produce the lineup that it did in 2010-11.

We sat down with five key members of the championship squad for one-on-one interviews:

· Head coach Brent Thompson, who not only coached but built the roster that became champions.

· Scott Burt, the team captain who had previously spent eight seasons as a rival player for the Idaho Steelheads.

· Defenseman Bryan Miller, who in his 4th season was the Aces longest tenured player.

· Forward Brian Swanson, the team's only Alaskan and a native of Eagle River who returned home in the 2010-11 season to play a season here for the first time since he was in high school.

· Goaltender Gerald Coleman, who was recruited by Thompson to help stabilize the position after the Aces had it rough in that area the previous season.

Some of the subjects we touch on include:

· The buildup to the 2010-11 season.

· The Aces early season hot-streak when each of their first three victories came in overtime.

· A successful 12-game homestand from mid-December to mid-January in which the Aces won 10 of those 12 and really got rolling.

· A late-January brawl against Bakersfield that sparked another string of victories.

· The emergence of eventual league MVP Wes Goldie and breakout star Scott Howes.

· The team's late season hot-streak in which they won 23 of their final 28 games to clinch the best regular season record in the ECHL.

· Each of the Aces' three playoff series (first round vs. Idaho, conference final vs. Victoria, and Kelly Cup Finals vs. Kalamazoo).

· Each of the five Aces we interviews also reflect on what they accomplished, as well as their 12-1 finish in the playoffs.

Channel 2's video of game action from the season is all sharply edited, with a series of closely linked storylines and illuminating stories from our interviews.

Contact Kevin Wells at kwells@ktuu.com

We sat down with five key members of the championship squad for one-on-one interviews:

· Head coach Brent Thompson, who not only coached but built the roster that became champions.

· Scott Burt, the team captain who had previously spent eight seasons as a rival player for the Idaho Steelheads.

· Defenseman Bryan Miller, who in his 4th season was the Aces longest tenured player.

· Forward Brian Swanson, the team's only Alaskan and a native of Eagle River who returned home in the 2010-11 season to play a season here for the first time since he was in high school.And Goaltender Gerald Coleman, who was recruited by Thompson to help stabilize the position after the Aces had it rough in that area the previous season.

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