The Alaska Aces still have the finale of three exhibition games to play and the regular season is still 10 days off, but coach Rob Murray still has roster decisions to deliver — and soon.
The Aces fell for the second straight night Tuesday, losing 3-1 to the South Carolina Stingrays at Sullivan Arena, and they close their preseason series Thursday night.
Before the series closer, though, Murray must submit his ECHL season-opening roster to the league by 11 a.m. ADT Thursday morning.
He is likely to make at least a couple cuts. The situation is more complicated than usual because several players who will join the team still have to travel here after being sent to the Aces from training camps in the American Hockey League. Also, Aces captain William Wrenn, a second-team All-ECHL defenseman last season, remains in training camp with AHL Toronto. And former NHL winger Tim Wallace of Anchorage, who played Tuesday, is one of several players in camp on tryouts.
Any players under tryout agreements must be signed to standard ECHL contracts before they can be submitted as part of the season-opening roster.
Also, the Aces don't play on the coming opening weekend in the ECHL — their regular season starts Oct. 21 in Colorado. So, for Murray, some math to calculate, all of it tinged by salary-cap considerations too.
"It's going to be a long night and a long day trying to figure it out,'' he said. "The timing of our exhibition games in relation to cut day makes it tough.''
In the Aces' modest performance Tuesday — that's in terms of crispness, not effort — no player on the bubble to make the roster overwhelmed Murray enough to make keeping him a no-brainer. That also complicates his decisions on cuts.
South Carolina, which fended off a late Aces comeback Monday to win 4-3 in overtime, didn't have such difficulties Tuesday. The Stingrays used first-period goals by Patrick Gaul and Travis Jeke to seize a 2-0 lead that lasted more than halfway through the third period.
Rob Flick's goal off a feed from former Aces winger Olivier Archambault pushed South Carolina's lead to 3-0 with less than eight minutes to go.
With Aces goaltender Lukas Hafner (33 saves) on the bench for an extra attacker, center Ben Lake scored inside the final two minutes for his second goal in two nights. But the Aces could not again crack Adam Carlson (27 saves).
South Carolina 2 0 1 — 3
Aces 0 0 1 — 1
First Period — 1, South Carolina, Gaul (Gacek, McParland), 5:41; 2, South Carolina, Jeke (Tanski), 13:17. Penalties — Valcourt, Aces, major-misconduct (fighting), 2:40; Perrier, South Carolina, major-misconduct (fighting), 2:40; Trenz, Aces (slashing), 7:04; Archambault, South Carolina (hooking), 7:56.
Second Period — None. Penalties — Jeke, South Carolina (hooking), 2:17; Ruegsegger, Aces (tripping), 4:07; Wallace, Aces (tripping), 9:50; Flick, South Carolina (elbowing), 11:33.
Third Period — 3, South Carolina, Flick (Archambault, Weinstein), 12:35; 4, Aces, Lake (Levesque, Trenz), 18:10 (ea). Penalties — Sivak, Aces (holding), 3:04; Gillies, South Carolina (boarding), 5:40; McParland, South Carolina (tripping), 6:23; Nikiforov, Aces (tripping), 14:30.
Shots on goal — South Carolina 12-13-9—36. Aces 6-8-14—28.
Power-play Opportunities — South Carolina 0 of 5. Aces 0 of 5.
Goalies — South Carolina, Carlson (28 shots-27 saves). Aces, Hafner (36-33).
A — 1,741 (6,399). T — 2:23.
Referee — Kenny Anderson. Linesmen — Travis Jackson, Josh Ellis.