Alaska Aces Hockey

The Alaska Aces are slumping, yet remain in playoff position

Despite a pair of slumps — 0-3-1 in the last four hockey games and a franchise-record, eight-game winless (0-6-2) funk on home ice — the Alaska Aces remain well-positioned in the race for the last playoff spot in the ECHL's Mountain Division.

That's because their rivals for a postseason berth aren't exactly killing it lately, either.

The Missouri Mavericks hadn't won in three games (0-2-1) and were just 1-3-1 in their last five before they racked a 3-2 overtime win against two-time defending champion Allen on Wednesday night. That pulled the Mavs within four points of the Aces.

And the Utah Grizzlies, who trail the Aces by five points and have played one more game than them, have lost three straight games and four of their last five.

So it is that the Aces went 0-2-1 at home against the Cincinnati Cyclones last week and yet still managed to come out of that series padding their edge on Utah and Missouri by a point over each club in the standings. That was the situation before Missouri's win Wednesday night.

"We could have really climbed if we hadn't lost all those games," said Aces center Tim Coffman. "Guess you should feel good. We still control things. The ball's in our court. We just have to win, man.

"No team has taken the bull by the horns."

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The Aces get three more chances at improving their playoff positioning with a homestand against the Rapid City Rush starting Friday night at Sullivan Arena.

The Rush sit last in the seven-team Mountain Division, but they've given the Aces plenty of problems — Alaska is just 4-3-0 against Rapid City. Utah has fared better, going 5-1-1 against the Rush. Missouri? Oh, well, Missouri and Rapid City do not play a single game against each other this season, despite competing in the same division — that's fallout from the league's decision to schedule the season prior to realigning divisions.

Anyhow, the Aces, who haven't made the playoffs the last two seasons and will fold at the end of the season, still control their fate.

"I don't like looking back at the fact, if we had gotten a split with Cincinnati — three points out of six — we could be up even more (in the standings)," Aces coach Rob Murray said. "As much as we've been subsidized by teams beating the teams chasing us, maybe that's our mulligan.

"It's up to us. When you really break it down, we lost three one-goal games. That should be encouraging. It's not like we were getting blown out."

Shuffling the deck

Peter Sivak, who returned to the Aces lineup last week after missing 19 games with a lower-body injury, owns 4-3–7 totals in five games against Rapid City this season. Coffman checks in at 5-1–6 in seven games.

Coffman has furnished at least one point in 14 of the last 16 games and is 10-14–24 in that span.

Former Aces forward Ryan Walters of Rapid City is 7-5–12 in seven games against the Aces this season.

Rapid City Rush

23-33-8

at 

Alaska Aces

30-23-10

Sullivan Arena

Friday, Saturday, 7:15 p.m.; Sunday, 3:05 p.m.

Radio: AM-750 and FM 103.7 KFQD

 

Doyle Woody

Doyle Woody covered hockey and other sports for the Anchorage Daily News for 34 years.

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