The ECHL regular season comes to a close this week but for one team, the Alaska Aces, this week could be their last.

Alaska has announced they will cease operations when the season ends and a hockey era in Anchorage will be gone.

The irony is not lost in the fact the Aces close the regular season against one of their all time rivals, the Idaho Steelheads this Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. This has been a physical rivalry through the years and while the Steelheads have qualified for their 20th consecutive playoff, The Aces are still fighting for their playoff life.

Alaska is 5th in the Mountain Division of the ECHL and only the top four teams make the playoffs. Utah and Missouri along with the Aces still have a chance to join Idaho, Colorado and Allen in the first round of the Kelly Cup series.

If Utah or Missouri don't make there'll always be next year and that's not the case for the Aces. Economic issues have sealed the Aces fate as a franchise whether it's over after Saturdays game, or if the Aces can buy some time by qualifying for a playoff berth, there will ne no next year..

At some point the inevitable will happen the season will end and the franchise will dissolve just like the Anchorage ice in June.

So lets hear it one more time for an Idaho-Alaska series in the wild frontier the end of an era.

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