Vegas begins the on-ice party in Saskatoon [Reviewed]

[Gudnason 607]

The Las Vegas Aces were in Saskatoon over the weekend as all four North American teams gathered in the prairie city for a series of exhibition matches ahead of the S54 regular season. The Aces had five different goalscorers as they easily defeated the Saskatoon Wild 5-2 while still in preseason form. If not for a lapse of concentration in the third period by star netminder Vernon Von Axelberry, this game could have easily been a lopsided affair for the star-studded team from the desert.

 

Las Vegas defenseman Dexter Lane opened the scoring early in the first period when he was fed the puck by Chinese prodigy Rudi Ying. Fellow Asian superstar Takashi Fujimoto doubled Vegas' lead in the second period after combining nicely with promising winger Slava Aleksei. Harambe further increased the Aces' lead to 3-0 early in the third period, before Saskatoon was able to score two goals within 25 seconds courtesy of Emiya Shirou and Bo Boeser to make it a one-goal game. Rusty Trombone and Riley Harper added insurance goals later in the third period, as the Aces will now head home to Nevada to start the regular season.

 

 

They will play the Saskatoon Wild and Oslo Storm at T-Mobile Arena before heading overseas to Norway to play the Oslo Storm. With only five teams in the VHLM this year, each team will play the other four teams 18 times over the course of the regular season - nine at home and nine on the road. This means that Las Vegas will have to make the 8,263 kilometre journey to Oslo eight more times this season. With the distance between Oslo and Las Vegas almost 50% more than the distance between either Oslo and Yellowknife (Yukon) or Oslo and Saskatoon, and almost triple the distance between Oslo and Ottawa, it is yet to be seen how the long travel times and fatigue will affect this year's Aces, who have been widely acknowledged as the runaway contenders long before the season even started.

 

Going back to the preseason friendly against the Wild, Vegas was able to pepper veteran Saskatoon goalie Chet Manley with 47 shots, as star wingers Rusty Trombone and Takashi Fujimoto both registered double-digit shot totals, while the trio of Dexter Lane, Harambe, and Riley Harper each had a half-dozen of shots. Rookie center Rudi Ying, looking to follow in the footsteps of Fook Yu, won 17 of his 23 faceoffs while also picking up a pair of assists. Diego Jokinen, who was involved in a free agency controversial over the offseason, and has finally completed his paperwork to join the Las Vegas Aces played a team-high 26:29 while picking up an assist. Depth defenseman Luka Volkov, who together with Lane and Aleksei played almost five minutes shorthanded, had a quiet, yet solid, game.

 

@BobertZ @Advantage @HFD @Tyler @Smarch @Ahma - sorry if I missed anybody, we have too many bodies.