The Alaska Aces' schedule next hockey season includes the familiar – a New Year's Eve home game for the 10th straight year – and the unusual – a season-opener on the road for just the fourth time in 14 ECHL seasons.
The Aces entertain the Colorado Eagles on New Year's Eve at Sullivan Arena. They also open the season on the road at Colorado on Wednesday, Oct. 19, and that's only the second time in their ECHL history they have opened on a night other than Friday.
While 24 of the circuit's 27 teams next season open the 72-game, regular-season grind on the weekend of Oct. 14-16, Alaska's Oct. 19 start will make it one of the last teams to get going. Only the South Carolina Stingrays and Orlando Solar Bears open later.
The Aces' home opener is Friday, Oct. 28, when they entertain the Rapid City Rush in the opener of a three-game series.
Alaska is coming off two poor seasons in which it failed to qualify for the playoffs and marked the first times the Aces did not make the postseason in the ECHL. Those consecutive disappointments came after the Aces in 2014 won the third Kelly Cup in franchise history.
Across the customary breakdown of 36 home games and 36 road games, the Aces will play 16 of the other 26 ECHL teams.
Alaska's most frequent opponents are the four other teams in the West Division. The Aces play Colorado 13 times, and get a heavy dose of the Idaho Steelheads (12), Utah Grizzlies (11) and Rapid City (10). Those 46 combined games comprise nearly two-thirds of Alaska's schedule.
The Aces for the first time entertain Orlando and the Toledo Walleye. The Indy Fuel is coming here for the first time in the regular season – the Aces played host to them in two exhibition games in 2014.
Alaska also will play on the road for the first time against the Missouri Mavericks, Manchester Monarchs, Fort Wayne Komets and Tulsa Oilers.
Alaska's longest homestands will be a pair of six-game stretches, both broken down into two three-game series.
And the Aces' longest road trip is a 10-game journey in late February and early March that will take them to six locations. They play the one game against the Elmira Jackals in New York and two against Manchester in New Hampshire, before flying back west and visiting Utah, Colorado and Rapid City.
That 10-game road trip ties for the third-longest stretch of road games in Aces history. Alaska racked 11-game trips in 2012 and 2004.
Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr
Alaska Aces 2016-17 schedule
Home games in CAPS
October: 19, 21-22 – at Colorado. 28-29-30 – RAPID CITY.
November: 5-6 – at Allen. 9, 11-12 – INDY. 18-19-20 – at Wichita. 25-26-27 – UTAH. 30 – at Idaho.
December: 2-3 – at Idaho. 9-10-11 – TOLEDO. 14 – at Tulsa. 16-17 – at Missouri. 21, 23 – at Rapid City. 30-31 – COLORADO.
January: 1 – COLORADO. 4, 6-7 – at Idaho. 11 13-14 – ORLANDO. 20-21 – at Utah. 25, 27-28 – IDAHO.
February: 3-4 – at Colorado. 8, 10-11 – UTAH. 17-18-19 – COLORADO. 23 – at Elmira. 25-26 – at Manchester.
March: 1, 3-4 – at Utah. 8 – at Colorado. 10-11 – at Rapid City; 12 – at Colorado. 15, 17-18 – CINCINNATI. 24-25-26 – RAPID CITY. 29 – at Fort Wayne. 31 – at Quad City.
April: 1 – at Quad City. 5, 7-8 – IDAHO.