The Alaska Aces' eight-game road point streak tumbled Wednesday night, and it was a hard landing.
The Rapid City Rush dispatched the Aces 4-0 at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in South Dakota to feed the visitors a shutout for the third time this ECHL hockey season and match Alaska's most lopsided loss.
The defeat snapped Alaska's 5-0-3 road run, the fifth-longest in the franchise's 14-season history, and marked its first road loss in regulation since a 5-1 setback at Wichita on Nov. 18.
Although Aces coach Rob Murray didn't think his team was out-played in the sense the outcome was inevitable, he wasn't happy with a "nonchalant" performance he likened to a sloppy start in a "Monday morning practice."
Sometimes, a coach can sense such a letdown coming when a team has savored the kind of success the Aces (15-6-5) have recently enjoyed.
"We're feeling good ourselves, we're on a good run," Murray recounted. "We're playing a team — you look at their record (9-13-5) and our record, and they haven't been as good as us — and I think there's a complacency that works into your psyche.
"Hopefully, it's a little bit of a wake-up call for some guys, that playing OK is not good enough."
Still, after surrendering 20 first-period shots and getting a stop from goaltender Kevin Carr (33 saves) on a penalty shot, the Aces trailed just 1-0 after one period. Doing the damage for Rapid City was former Aces forward Ryan Walters, who scored on a breakaway.
The Aces enjoyed an excellent chance for the equalizer, and possibly more, when Rapid City's Triston Grant was issued a major penalty for elbowing five minutes into the second period. But the Rush killed that extended power play and took a 2-0 lead 44 seconds after it expired on defenseman Dysin Mayo's first pro goal, which ricocheted into the net off Aces forward Ben Lake.
Josh MacDonald added a second-period goal for the Rush and Nicholas Miglio wrapped up the scoring with a third-period strike.
Rush rookie Adin Hill (30 saves) made all of that stand up for his first ECHL shutout — but not his first bagel as a pro, since he owns a shutout for Tucson of the American Hockey League.
Alaska and Rapid City close their two-game series Friday night, and that also ends the Aces' five-game road trip and takes them into the holiday break.
Shuffling the deck
Carr stopped Miglio's penalty shot. In his three seasons in the ECHL, Carr has stopped all four penalty shots he has faced.
The Aces killed all six Rush power plays and have killed all 19 power plays by opponents in four games of this road trip.
On the flip side, the Aces went 0 for 4 with the man advantage and are 0 for 11 on the power play on this trip.
Aces defenseman Marc-Andre Levesque sat out the game with a back injury suffered in practice Monday.
Rapid City's Walters, who played for the Aces as a rookie in 2014-15, also had an assist. In the last two seasons, playing for Rapid City and Utah, Walters owns 10-9–19 totals in 16 games against the Aces for an average of 1.19 points per game. In 81 games against opponents other than the Aces, Walters is 24-46–70 for an average of .86 points per game.
Aces 0 0 0 — 0
Rapid City 1 2 1 — 4
First Period — 1, Rapid City, Walters 9, 5:41. Penalties — Miglio, Rapid City (slashing), 1:52; Coffman, Aces (hooking), 1:52; Lauwers, Aces (high-stcking), 11:25; Cooper, Rapid City (hooking), 11:43; Hunt, Aces (slashing), 14:54; Perlini, Rapid City (cross-checking), 16:59; Perfetto, Aces (slashing), 17:41; Lake, Aces (slashing), 19:04.
Second Period — 2, Rapid City, Mayo 1 (Cooper, Perlini), 11:10; 3, Rapid City, McDonald 13 (Mayo, Walters), 14:00. Penalties — Miglio, Rapid City (interference), 5:26; Grant, Rapid City, major-game misconduct (elbowing), 5:26; Lauwers, Aces (cross-checking), 14:51; Laplante, Aces (boarding), 18:13.
Third Period — 4, Rapid City, Miglio 3 (Cooper), 8:56. Penalties — Tolkinen, Rapid City (unsportsmanlike conduct), 12:58; Ruegsegger, Aces (unsportsmanlike conduct), 12:58.
Shots on goal – Aces 10-10-10—30. Rapid City 20-12-5—37.
Missed penalty shot — Miglio, Rapid City, 9:00 1st period.
Power-play Opportunities – Aces 0 of 4. Rapid City 0 of 6.
Goalies – Aces, Carr, 8-5-3 (37 shots-33 saves). Rapid City, Hill, 1-2-0 (30-30).
A – 2,818 (5,119). T – 2:27.
Referee — Lucas Martin. Linesmen — Shayne Bender, Cade Bloomenrader.