Sports

Aces had better be in game shape now

Until now, the Alaska Aces have enjoyed a relatively light schedule -- a hockey game roughly every three nights.

The grind of the 72-game ECHL schedule, though, starts for real tonight.

When the puck drops between the Aces and the Idaho Steelheads tonight at Sullivan Arena, the Aces and the Las Vegas Wranglers will have played the fewest games -- 25 each -- of the 19 teams on the circuit.

But tonight's match begins a stretch of four games in five nights, albeit all of them on home ice. Alaska entertains Ontario on Friday and Saturday nights.

And that's just a taste of what the post-holiday schedule has in store for the Aces, who won four straight games before the break.

After playing 25 games in a stretch of 65 days to begin the season, beginning tonight the Aces play their remaining 47 regular-season games in a span of 96 days, or roughly a game every other night.

The next three-plus months deliver the Aces four instances in which they play four games in five nights; five other stretches in which they play three games in four nights; and four more points where they play three games in three nights.

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The schedule gets especially packed in the last two months -- the Aces play 30 games during the final 60 days of the regular season. Factor in fatigue from a long season and traveling, and the message is clear: The Aces better get their rest when they can, take plenty of vitamins and hope they don't endure a slew of injuries or call-ups.

But, hey, the Steelheads aren't likely to shed a tear for the Aces.

After Idaho plays here tonight and Wednesday night, it entertains Bakersfield in Boise on Friday and Saturday nights for a four-games-in-five-nights stretch even more difficult than the one the Aces face beginning tonight.

Find Doyle Woody's blog at adn.com/hockeyblog or call him at 257-4335.

By DOYLE WOODY

dwoody@adn.com

Doyle Woody

Doyle Woody covered hockey and other sports for the Anchorage Daily News for 34 years.

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