Results the Alaska Aces could not influence all fell their way Friday.
They botched the one result they could control.
After scoring the game's first goal early in the third period, the Aces immediately surrendered the equalizer and later gave up a short-handed, game-winning strike to a former Ace in their 2-1 road loss to the Rapid City Rush.
That squandered opportunity kept the Aces from stretching their advantage over their pursuers in the race for the fourth and final playoff spot in the ECHL's Mountain Division.
Utah and Missouri both lost before Alaska's game went final, and third-place Idaho lost while the Aces were playing. But those results favorable to the Aces all went for naught at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in South Dakota.
The Aces (29-21-8) still sit fourth in the division, where they could have pulled within five points of third-place Idaho, pushed their advantage over fifth-place Utah to five points and their cushion over sixth-place Missouri to seven points.
Instead, the Aces remain seven points behind Idaho, three ahead of Utah and five ahead of Missouri entering a game Saturday night at last-place Rapid City (22-29-8), which snapped its three-game losing streak.
The Aces are 3-3-0 against the Rush this season.
Friday's game was the first of Alaska's 58 this season that did not produce a goal in the first 40 minutes.
The Aces finally cracked the drought five minutes into the third period, when Yan-Pavel Laplante carried the puck through neutral ice and fed Ben Lake, who replayed the puck to Tommy Olczyk for a one-timer and a 1-0 lead. That snapped Olczyk's 12-game point drought.
Yet Rapid City answered on the ensuing shift 35 seconds later when Ryan Misiak deflected Terrence Wallin's shot past Kevin Carr for a 1-1 tie.
Surrendering a goal on the shift immediately after scoring a goal is a shortcoming that makes a hockey coach stew. Aces coach Rob Murray in his postgame radio interview called such an event "sacrilegious."
Granted, the Aces this season have scored within one minute of an opponent's goal on eight occasions. They've only been the victim of that circumstance five times, but coaches tend to remember the times they are on the painful side of that equation.
Murray wasn't much more stoked about the game-winning goal his club surrendered.
The Aces went on a power play with less than five minutes left in regulation, but gave up a short-handed 2-on-1 that former Ace Ryan Walters roofed on Carr for his team-leading 26th goal and a 2-1 lead that stood.
All Walters has done this season is score six goals and 10 points in six games against the Aces. In 17 games against them the past two seasons, Walters owns 12-9—21 totals.
The game was the first Alaska has lost in regulation in four games it has been without both leading scorer Stephen Perfetto, on loan to Milwaukee of the American Hockey league, and leading goal scorer Peter Sivak, who missed his 16th consecutive game with a lower-body injury. The Aces are 2-1-1 without their two top snipers.
Alaska wasted a 28-save performance from Carr. Adam Morrison stopped 25 shots for Rapid City.
Saturday's rematch is particularly critical for the Aces because immediately after that game they will bus at least seven hours to Colorado, where the division-leading Eagles await for a Sunday matinee that closes Alaska's 10-game road trip. The Eagles will not have played since the Aces' 5-4 overtime victory against them Wednesday.
Shuffling the deck
Perfetto, in his fourth career AHL game, bagged his first point on the circuit one step below the NHL when he contributed an assist. He played three games for San Antonio of the AHL earlier this season in his first promotion to that circuit.
Aces center Tim Coffman lost his career-high, 10-game point streak.
The Aces are 4-3-1 eight games into their 10-game trip.
Alaska captain Garet Hunt sat out his seventh straight game since undergoing an surgery to remove his appendix earlier on the trip.
Aces 0 0 1 — 1
Rapid City 0 0 2 — 2
First Period — None. Penalties — Trenz, Aces (holding), 2:14; Collins, Rapid City (holding), 6:06.
Second Period — None. Penalties — Aces bench minor, served by Coffman (too many men), :46; Van Allen, Aces (cross-checking), 12:15; Miglio, Rapid City (tripping), 14:18; Wallace, Aces (cross-checking), 14:46.
Third Period — 1, Aces, Olczyk 6 (Lake, Laplante), 5:29; 2, Rapid City, Misiak 15 (Wallin), 6:04; 3, Rapid City, Walters 26, 16:09 (sh). Penalties — Young, Rapid City (cross-checking), 15:34.
Shots on goal — Aces 8-7-11—26. Rapid City 6-15-9—30.
Power-play Opportunities — Aces 0 of 3. Rapid City 0 of 4.
Goalies — Aces, Carr, 15-15-3 (30 shots-28 saves). Rapid City, Morrison, 13-12-4 (26-25).
A — 4,460 (5,119). T — 2:35.
Referee — Korey Chipperfield. Linesmen — Logan Bellgraph, Josh Pergande.