ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska Aces defeated the Utah Grizzlies 2-0 Saturday evening at the Sullivan Arena to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven playoff series. It is the second-straight evening that Alaska has defeated Utah 2-0. Goaltender Mike Mole again suffered the tough luck loss for the Grizzlies stopping 36 of 38 shots.

Alaska took a 1-0 lead with 24 seconds left to go in the first period following a Utah turnover behind the net. The Grizzlies appeared to have control of the puck and were ready to start a controlled breakout before the puck was picked up by Josh Soares who fed Luke Erickson to make the score 1-0.

The second period was scoreless as Utah outshot Alaska 9-7.

In the third, the Grizzlies looked for a cross-ice pass in the neutral zone but before Brett Beauchamp could play the puck off of the wall it deflected off of referee Andy Thiessen and back towards the Utah end where Alexandre Imbeault buried his first goal of the playoffs 3:35 into the final frame of regulation.

Utah called timeout and pulled Mike Mole in favor of an extra-attacker with just less than three minutes left in the third but was unable to get anything on goaltender J.P. Lamoureux who shutout the Grizzlies on 22 shots for his second-straight shutout against Utah in the playoffs and his fourth-straight shutout against the Grizzlies overall.

The series now reverts to the E Center Wednesday for game three. Face-off is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.