Anchorage Daily News

Friends since pre-school, Erik Fabian and Luke Erickson grew up together on the same block in the small town of Roseau in northwestern Minnesota, where just one home separated their houses.

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Luke Erickson

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Erik Fabian

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During summers, they played sandlot baseball games in the empty lot next to Fabian's house. Come winter, they played hockey, and in 1999 they helped the Roseau Rams seize the state high school hockey championship.

Playing junior hockey in the U.S. Hockey League, they were teammates one season with the Topeka (Kan.) Scarecrows. They finally went their separate ways in college -- Fabian to North Dakota, Erickson to Bemidji (Minn.) State -- but reunited as pro rookies last season for the now-defunct Pensacola (Fla.) Ice Pilots of the ECHL.

Now they're coming to Anchorage. The Alaska Aces on Wednesday announced they have signed the lifelong friends, both 25-year-old forwards, for the upcoming ECHL season.

"From one extreme to the other,'' Erickson said of the switch from Florida to Alaska. "From golf clubs and shorts to snow coats and snow boots.''

And, they hope, from one extreme to the other in terms of winning.

Pensacola last season was the worst team in the ECHL, going 19-44-9 and scoring by far the fewest goals in the league (157).

Erickson and Fabian were accustomed to winning in high school, and again in college, where teams play roughly half as many games as ECHL teams. Bemidji won 20 or more games three times in Erickson's career, and North Dakota averaged 27 wins a season and twice advanced to the Frozen Four in Fabian's career.

Both players said they were encouraged by friends in hockey to give the Aces a try, in part because the franchise has a winning tradition that includes a 2006 Kelly Cup.

"I didn't want to go play for another team that only wins 19 games,'' Erickson said by cell phone from Roseau. "There's a lot of ups and downs in hockey, but the ups and downs last year were extreme.

"I wanted to go to a team that gives you a chance to win.''

Ditto for Fabian.

"(Alaska) is a perennial winner,'' he said by cell phone. "Last year was tough on me. I still loved playing the game and I was still excited to go to practice.

"But looking back on it, it was not fun to lose so much.''

Both players became free agents when Pensacola announced earlier this summer that it would not field a team in the upcoming season.

"They'll make us younger and deeper, and give us versatility,'' said Aces coach Keith McCambridge.

Erickson last season produced 15 goals, 16 assists and 31 points in 70 games to rank third among Pensacola goal scorers. His minus-41 rating in plus-minus, McCambridge said, was not indicative of a player who bagged 52 goals and 121 points in 125 career college games. McCambridge said that was more a reflection of Pensacola's miserable season and spotty goaltending.

Fabian earned 10-13--23 totals in 47 games.

McCambridge said Fabian and Erickson were strongly recommended by former Ice Pilots coach John Marks, the former NHL defenseman who has won two ECHL titles and a Southern Professional Hockey League title. Marks, now head coach of the ECHL's Augusta Lynx, is the ECHL's all-time winningest coach and owns a record of 757-626-139 in 21 seasons as a minor-league bench boss.

When Erickson and Fabian come north for their second pro seasons, they'll have more than their long friendship and hockey careers in common.

Erickson and his wife, Mary, married in July. Fabian and his wife, Tina, tied the knot on Saturday.

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

Players under contract for the Aces

The Alaska Aces of the ECHL have signed nine players -- six forwards and three defensemen -- for the upcoming hockey season. Below are the players, and the teams and leagues they played in last season.

FORWARDS

Scott Burt Utah Grizzlies ECHL

Bo Cheesman Alaska Aces ECHL

Luke Erickson Pensacola Ice Pilots ECHL

Erik Fabian Pensacola Ice Pilots ECHL

Brett Hemingway Alaska Aces ECHL

Colin Hemingway Edinburgh Capitals EIHL (UK)

DEFENSEMEN

Lee Green Alaska Aces ECHL

Derick Martin Alaska Aces ECHL

Bryan Miller Alaska Aces ECHL

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