THE Altrincham Aces ended their 1998/99 season in fine style last Sunday night with an excellent win over their biggest rivals in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd at their Devonshire Road home.

In the last match of the ED1 Northern Conference Playoffs, Player/Manager Ari-Pekka Mikkola marked his final game before retirement by leading his troops to a hard-fought come-from-behind 4-3 win over the Flintshire Freeze, leapfrogging the Pack over their opponents to a third place finish in the group.

The Aces veteran squad had the greater firepower on the night, but the Freeze's youngsters gave an excellent showing themselves and really made Danny Higgin in the Altrincham net work hard for his man-of-the-match honours.

Only one goal was produced, Paul Fluery netting for the Aces on the game's first powerplay after assists from Mike Andrews and Ged Smith.

The second session saw more of the same, although as time went on it appeared that the Aces were beginning to gain the upper hand.

Good defence spurred the Freeze to greater things at the opposite end of the ice, and they managed first to pull level and then take a 2-1 lead of their own, first through Jason Titmus and then Danny Compton with another former Ace Peter Founds the guiding influence behind both goals.

The Pack came close but not close enough before the interval and they knew that they had a real battle on their hands.

With the game on the line, the third period was a barnstorming affair, and on reflection was probably the most exciting of hockey seen all season at Devonshire Road.

The Aces produced a number of good attacking moves without finding that final killer touch, whilst Flintshire were twice denied by the pipe-work of the Altrincham goal.

The Pack's equaliser finally came midway through the period when Smith hammered home a classic poacher's goal after a good move from Mikkola and Pete Winstanley, and with their spirits now raised they began to look the more menacing of the two teams as they pushed for a winner.

The game's decisive moment came six minutes from time and in storybook fashion, Mikkola firing home the final goal of his Aces career with a flourish to make it 3-2 and bringing the home crowd to their feet.

The flying Finn wasn't through though, as minutes later he turned provider for big defenceman Tim Dempsey to score the Pack's fourth, and although Flintshire's Steve Fellows pulled one back in the dying seconds, the Aces' impressive win was by then secure.

Aces Assistant Manager Graham Millward said:

"This was a great way for our season to end, defeating our closest rivals in an excellent game in front of the biggest home crowd for a league game all year."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.