The Alaska Aces have scheduled a pair of exhibition games in October, just days ahead of their season-opening home series at Sullivan Arena.
The Aces on Monday announced they will play preseason games against the Missouri Mavericks on Monday, Oct. 12 and Tuesday, Oct. 13. Those games precede the ECHL season-opening, three-game series –a Friday, Saturday, Sunday series -- between the teams on Oct. 16-18.
The Mavericks and Aces have never played. The Aces have been members of the ECHL since the 2003-04 season and the Mavericks joined the ECHL last season after previously playing in the now-defunct Central Hockey League.
Ticket information for the Aces' exhibition games, which start at 7:15 p.m. each night, will be announced later, the team said Monday.
The Aces traditionally play two home exhibition games a little less than two weeks before the start of the season and use those as "Paint the Rink Pink'' fundraisers for the fight against breast cancer.
But substantial upgrades currently taking place at Sullivan – new ice-making facility, new floor, new seating, for instance – prompted the Aces to scrap the fund-raising games earlier this summer because it was not clear if the upgrades would be completed by early October.
Playing Missouri in the exhibition games should shave costs for the Aces because the Mavericks already are traveling here for the season-opening series.