Alec Butcher
Anchorage’s Alec Butcher and the Reading Royals have completed their first-round work to advance in the ECHL’s Kelly Cup playoffs.
And if Anchorage’s Nolan Walker and the Newfoundland Growlers do the same Sunday, or beyond, we’ll have a North Division Finals battle of Alaskans on our hands.
Butcher and company advanced Saturday night with a 6-2 win over visiting Maine that earned them a 4-2 series win. Butcher assisted on an empty-net goal. He didn’t get much offensively in the series after a 21-goal regular season – two helpers, 10 shots on goal and a minus-2 rating in six games – so the forward is due to bust out after scoring just one playoff goal in 17 games the last two seasons in the Kelly Cup playoffs.
Walker, meanwhile, is riding a three-game point streak. The rookie center has two goals and an assist in Newfoundland’s three straight wins, which propelled them from an opening-game loss to a 3-1 series advantage over Adirondack entering Sunday’s Game 5. He’s plus-1 in the series, with five shots on goal. Newfoundland has punished Adirondack for 20 goals in the three straight victories.
Nolan Walker
The winner of the Adirondack-Newfoundland series faces Reading in the North Division Finals.
On the amateur side, the U.S. Hockey League’s regular-season champion Fargo Force, which features three Alaskans, advanced to the Western Conference Finals with Saturday night’s 3-2 overtime win over the Tri-City Storm to sweep the best-of-3 conference semifinals.
In Fargo’s 3-2 regulation win Friday in the series opener, rookie Mac Swanson of Anchorage assisted on its first two goals and went plus-1. In two games, he’s plus-1, with those two helpers and three shots on goal.
Winger Bret Link of Anchorage, Swanson’s linemate, didn’t register a point in the series, and earned an even rating while getting off five shots on goal.
The Force also includes rookie defenseman Camden Shasby of Anchorage, who played both games in the series, generating two shots and a minus-1 rating.
Fargo next plays the winner of the Waterloo-Lincoln series – decisive Game 3 is Sunday – in a best-of-5 series.