Hey, kids -- you're on your own for a couple of weeks-plus because The Blog and Mrs. Blog are taking a seriously fun roadie to see a distant part of the planet and get rested up for the run to the playoffs. (OK, one of us is eager to see some playoff hockey).

Enjoy the next couple weeks of the season, and The Blog will try to avoid a serious upper-body injury (specifically, from the neck up), and will definitely look forward to finding out what happened all around the pucks world in his absence.

Peace.

The Alaska Aces' second long road trip of the ECHL season thus far hasn't panned out nearly as sweetly as their first long roadie.

You may recall that the Aces made an eight-game journey in late November and early December, and everything went swimmingly -- they went 6-0-2 to rack 14 of a possible 16 points.

Through eight games of their current 11-game grind, things have not rocked -- the Aces have gone just 2-5-1 for just five of a possible 16 points.

Bit of turnabout tonight -- the ECHL-leading Alaska Aces fell 4-2 at Las Vegas and WCHA last-place UAA Seawolves knocked off No. 1-ranked Minnesota-Duluth 3-2.

The Aces got two goals from Dan Kissel -- he owns a team-leading 27, two more than slumping (zero points in seven games) Wes Goldie -- but Las Vegas' Adam Miller trumped that with a hat trick, including two third-period goals in a game that was tied 2-2 entering the third period.

Well, things got a bit nasty in Utah tonight, where, judging from the digital scoresheet, the Ontario Reign and Utah Grizzlies engaged in a brawl before the start of the game.

Ontario's Chris Cloud, Derek Couture and Steven Tarasuk all received fighting majors and game misconducts, as did Utah's Jordan Foreman (the former Ace), Cody Lampl and Matt Sorteberg. Can't tell whether that all happened in warm-ups or before the actual drop of the puck, but have heard it was in warm-ups, where officials are not present, so that musta been a Gong Show. Suspensions and fines will be forthcoming.

The Alaska Aces' 2-1 loss at Las Vegas tonight marked their 48th game of the ECHL's 72-game regular season and, despite the loss, they remain atop the league standings by eight points over the Wranglers.

For your consideration, here's how the Aces (currently an excellent 32-10-6, the second-best record at the two-thirds pole in the franchise's ECHL history) have done through 48 games in all nine of their ECHL seasons. And, hey, getta load of the 2005-06 team, which was a Kelly Cup winner.

Season-Record-Points
2011-12 -- 32-10-6, 70 points
2010-11 -- 27-19-2, 56 points

The entertainment tonight at Sullivan Arena was furnished by Minnesota-Duluth sophomore winger J.T. Brown, who dropped a career-high four goals on UAA in a 4-1 Bulldogs victory.

Brown exploded for a first-period hat trick, with all three strikes coming at even strength. He added a power-play marker in the second period.

Mitch Bruijsten scored UAA's only goal on a deflection of Matt Bailey's power-play shot in the second period. That was Bruijsten's team-high eighth goal.

The Blog has a standing policy whenever he has a chance to run into an Alaska Ace on his way up to the American Hockey League -- basically, congrats, hope we never see you again (cuz that would mean the guy does so well up there he doesn't make it back down the the ECHL).

In any event, we didn't get to see Gerald Coleman before he headed out of town bound for AHL Lake Erie, but at the rate he's going the odds of his return are ever diminishing.

The dominoes tumbled today -- an injury suffered by Detroit Red Wings No. 1 goaltender Jimmy Howard on Thursday night had an immediate impact on two Alaska goalies.

The broken finger Howard suffered on his right (stick) hand in Thursday night's 4-3 shootout win at Vancouver means his back-up, veteran Ty Conklin of Anchorage, will start at least the next two Red Wings games. They next play Saturday in Edmonton, one of Conklin's former teams.

The Alaska Aces nipped their four-game winless skid (0-3-1) in the bud tonight with a much-needed 4-2 win at Las Vegas in a matchup of the ECHL's top two clubs.

Jordan Kremyr's goal midway through the third period broke a 2-2 tie and Dan Kissel's empty-net strike assured victory for Alaska (32-9-6), which opened a three-game set in Sin City.

The Aces never trailed, which certainly makes life on the frozen pond much easier.

With captain Brian Swanson still injured -- he's missed 10 games -- and several players up in the AHL, the ECHL's Alaska Aces have added forward Blair Yaworski, late of the Utah Grizzlies.

Yaworski, 26, was released by Utah earlier this week.

In 30 combined games with Trenton and Utah this season, Yaworski is 5-7--12 and -7.

The Aces tonight open a three-game series against the Las Vegas Wranglers. Alaska carries a season-worst four-game winless streak (0-3-1) into the series, which features three games in three nights.

Goaltender Stephon Williams of Fairbanks has been traded to the U.S. Hockey League's Waterloo Black Hawks from the Sioux Falls Stampede in a move that appears to give him a much better shot at playoff hockey this spring.

Williams, who is headed to Minnesota State-Mankato in the fall, was swapped for goalie Jay Williams -- they were teammates in the recent USHL/NHL Prospects Game -- and forward prospect Zach Stepan.

Montreal Canadiens fans these days are booing center Scott Gomez of Anchorage when he touches the puck, so, yeah, been a tough go for the most accomplished Alaska hockey player in history.

Man, tonight you could practically hear the gagging all the way from Cincinnati, where the Toledo Walleye got a big old chicken bone stuck in their collective throats.

Bottom-line: The Cincy Cyclones beat the Walleye, 7-6, in OT.

The back story: Toledo led 6-1 more than halfway through the game (with 7:33 left in the second). And the Walleye still led 6-3 after two periods, and that score stood for the opening nine minutes of the third period.

UAF goaltender Scott Greenham today was one of 10 finalists announced for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award for hockey -- the honor goes to an athlete who excels in four areas: Community, classroom, character and competition.

The Alaska Aces have now gone four games without a win -- granted, not exactly what you'd call a legitimate, no-holds slump, but still the longest winless streak (0-3-1 after Tuesday's 4-3 shootout loss at Las Vegas) of the season for the ECHL leaders.

It was roughly this time of the year last season that the Aces struggled, and there are a few similarities between the funks.

Thanks to former Aces beat writer and (very) occasional beer-league backchecker Matt Nevala, here's a couple of notes from around the ECHL.

First, Kory Karlander of the Kalamazoo K-Wings (enough alliteration for ya?) over the weekend celebrated his 1,000th game with the club. Here's his Alaska connections: He scored the first goal of his college career at Sullivan Arena (with Northern Michigan), plus you no doubt remember he and the K-Wings played the Aces in the Kelly Cup Finals last spring (in which Karlander seemed to win, oh, 138 percent of the face-offs he took).

The Blog's got a sorta full plate on its "day off,'' so here's the story about today's Alaska Aces 2-1 loss at Stockton that will appear in the Monday dead-trees edition of the ADN:

"Adam Courchaine regained his groove.

Alex Stalock proved even groovier.

In a goaltending duel between guys under contract to NHL teams, Stockton’s Stalock was just the tiniest bit better than Alaska’s Courchaine, and he backstopped the Thunder to a 2-1 ECHL victory Sunday that earned them a three-game sweep of the visiting Aces.

Heard some rumblings about this recently and Chris Heisenberg's recruiting site confirms it: Forward Matt Friese of Wasilla, who was once a UAA Seawolves recruit and then de-committed, is now a UAF Nanooks recruit.

Friese, 19, who plays for the Lincoln Stars of the USHL, has made a commitment to the Nanooks.

Friess owns 7-13--20 totals and a +11 rating in 36 games.

Last season, he had 2-4--6 and +4 totals in 14 USHL games with Chicago and Tri-City, and 23-18--41 totals for the Alaska Avalanche of North American Hockey League.

A couple of former Alaska Aces have been traded in the ECHL, and The Blog believes on of them -- goaltender Billy Sauer -- has been on enough different teams on the circuit that he should answer to "Suitcase.''

Sauer was traded from the Florida Everblades to the South Carolina Stingrays, who will be his fourth ECHL club this season alone and his eighth in three pro seasons.

The Alaska Aces and UAA Seawolves both lost again tonight, and things don't get any easier the next time the puck drops for both.

Alaska's 4-1 loss at Stockton, coupled with Friday's 6-3 loss there, marks the first time the ECHL leaders have lost consecutive games in regulation in three months -- that's a pretty astounding stat.