In a critical tune-up two nights ahead of their most pivotal series of the hockey season, the Alaska Aces visited the Idaho Steelheads on Wednesday and promptly got, well, tuned up.
The ECHL's Pacific Division-leading Idaho Steelheads administered the Aces' most lopsided loss of the season with a 5-0 thumping at CenturyLink Arena.
Idaho (46-17-6) scored goals 36 seconds apart inside the opening seven minutes, led 3-0 less than five minutes into the second period, chased Aces starter Troy Redmann before the halfway point and extended its point streak to seven games (6-0-1).
Alaska (34-26-7) had its season-best, five-game road winning streak snapped, was shut out for the third time this season and closed its season schedule against Idaho with a sixth consecutive loss in Boise.
The Aces' lead over the Utah Grizzlies for the fourth and last playoff spot in the Pacific Division remains at one point, and both teams have five games left in the regular season, beginning with a showdown in Utah on Friday and Saturday.
Prospects for padding that skate blade-slim margin over Utah vanished in short order when Idaho's David de Kastrozza and Wade MacLeod scored early in the first period.
Steelheads rookie defenseman Zach Kamrass, fresh out of UMass-Lowell, pumped the lead to 3-0 early in the second period and scored on the power play at 8:48 of the period to balloon the lead to 4-0 and prompt Aces coach Rob Murray to give Redmann (11 saves on 15 shots) the hook in favor of Niklas Lundstrom.
Steve Quailer's third-period goal was just bookkeeping.
Aces coach Rob Murray was flummoxed by his team's lack of urgency and emotion. He theorized that perhaps the fatigue of the longest road trip of the season accumulated – Wednesday marked the eighth game of a 10-game journey covering nearly three weeks – but said even that couldn't fully explain his team's lethargy in an important game against a tough opponent.
"We didn't generate anything all game,'' Murray said by cellphone. "It was one through 18 in the lineup – there was nothing there, nothing.
"I don't have an explanation for it.''
Former Aces goaltender Olivier Roy, who helped them to the Kelly Cup last season, needed to stop just 20 shots to bag his fourth shutout of the season. Idaho winger Alex Belzile, a Cup winner with the Aces last season, furnished one assist and former UAF winger Colton Beck contributed two assists.
The Aces went 0 for 5 on the power play. They surrendered a power-play goal in the Steelheads' four chances. And they barely threatened Roy. Alaska's top line of Greg Wolfe centering Brendan Connolly and Dean Chelios, for instance, did not register a shot on goal in the first two periods.
More to the point, 14 of Alaska's 16 skaters checked in with a plus-minus rating of minus-1 or worse while 15 of Idaho's 16 were plus-1 or better.
The Aces' 2-0 deficit after one period was a familiar circumstance for them in Boise. In their six straight losses at Idaho, the Aces were outscored 15-3 in first periods.
Of course, the Steelheads administered ample first-period pain to all opponents. They have outscored opponents 84-35 in first periods, and that plus-49 differential is plus-14 better than any other team on the 28-team circuit.
Alaska went 4-7-1 against Idaho this season, and that .375 winning percentage against the Steelheads is Alaska's lowest against any opponent.
Shuffling the deck
Alaska's five-game road winning streak tied for the fourth-longest in club history. The Aces three times have assembled six-game road winning streaks – in 2012-13, 2007-08 and 2005-06.
Redmann's loss snapped his nine-game streak (7-0-2) of going unbeaten in regulation. The loss was just his second in regulation for the Aces – he's 11-2-3 since the Aces picked him up off waivers from Colorado.
Ryan Walters and Wolfe had six-game point streaks snuffed, Connolly had his five-game streak halted and Chris Francis lost his four-game streak.
Also snapped was Alaska's string of scoring at least one power-play goal in four straight games. The Aces have surrendered at least one power-play goal in four straight games.
Winger Cody Beach, who the St. Louis Blues assigned to the Aces from Chicago of the American Hockey League, made his Aces debut. He was minus-2 with a slashing penalty that led to Kamrass' power-play goal.
Lundstrom stopped 10 of 11 shots.
Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com, check out his blog at adn.com/hockey-blog and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr