The Ste. Anne Aces scored four unanswered first period goals en route to a 7-4 home ice victory over the Grunthal Red Wings Wednesday night.

Keith Grondin had two goals and an assist for the defending Carillon Senior Hockey League champions who lead the best-of-seven final three games to one.

The Aces have owned the Red Wings in the opening period this series outscoring Grunthal 14-1 in the first four games.

"We're happy with our first 20 minutes, the final 40 we really have to work on it," said Ste. Anne defensman Jon Mitchell. "They have a lot of really good players over there and a good goalie. We can't let up like we have been and that's something going into Thursday...one of the hardest things to do is eliminate a team."

Mitchell, Steph Pattyn, Miguel Rondeau, Russell Trudeau and Justin Tremblay also scored for Ste. Anne.

Jason Frykas scored twice for the Red Wings while singles went to Kevin Vandewater and Ryan Frykas.

Game five goes tonight (8 p.m.) in Grunthal.

Red Wings coach Marv Kornelsen says they can't keep trying to dig out of these huge first period holes.

"We got to start playing the first period so we're not behind four goals, and five goals and six goals. We just have to win the battles. Win the battles in front of their net and win the battles in front of our net."

The Aces have reeled off three straight wins and are playing with a ton of confidence since losing game one in Grunthal.

"We almost took them for granted a little bit," said Russell Trudeau. "We didn't think they were going to come out and play that well. We let in a couple of bad goals so we tightened up our D zone a bit. We knew our offensive chances would come so we kept going, and kept dumping the puck in, and kept hitting."