The Alaska Aces open their longest road trip of the season Friday, and it's not hockey hyperbole to believe the nine-game journey will heavily influence whether they make the ECHL playoffs.
Alaska is nine points out of playoff position in the Western Conference with 23 games left in the regular season.
Even though the Aces won two of three home games against the defending Kelly Cup champion Allen Americans last week, they remain where they were before that series — nine points out of a postseason spot and, sitting 11th among 14 conference teams, needing to leapfrog three teams. The top eight teams advance.
The Aces' trip is an 18-day journey, counting travel days on each side, and features nine games in 16 days. They open with a three-game series at Rapid City in South Dakota starting Friday before three-game series at Colorado and Idaho.
After that, they have nine home games and five road games remaining. Yet those games at the tail end of the schedule likely will only be significant if the Aces end the nine-game road trip in better position than they currently occupy.
The Aces practiced outdoors Wednesday. They did the same before a six-game January road trip in which they went 4-0-2.
Alaska on Wednesday traded rookie goaltender Steven Summerhays of Anchorage to the league-leading Missouri Mavericks to complete an earlier deal in which they acquired rookie winger Scott Wamsganz of Anchorage.
On Tuesday the team placed defenseman Daniel Johnston on 21-day injured reserve with a shoulder injury. That leaves six healthy defensemen, the number teams generally dress for games. Already on the 21-day IR was first-line center Tim Coffman, who suffered a groin injury in Idaho earlier this month.
Shuffling the deck
The Aces have announced season-ticket sales for next season with discounts as high as 20 percent, provided tickets are bought by month's end.
Alaska's attendance has taken a big hit the last two seasons. The Aces in 27 home games this season have averaged 3,633 fans, down 734 per game, or 16.8 percent from last season, when they failed to make the postseason for the first time in their ECHL history. In the last two seasons, Aces attendance has fallen 21.3 percent, from 4,619 per game in their Kelly Cup-winning season (2013-14) to 3,633 this season.
Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com, check out his blog at adn.com/hockeyblog and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr
Alaska Aces (19-25-5) at Rapid City Rush (19-26-4)
Friday and Saturday, 5:05 p.m. AST, Sunday, 2:05 p.m. AST.
Radio: Live, AM-750 and FM-103.7 KFQD