The Idaho Steelheads stayed in the game until the final minutes of Saturday’s contest against the Alaska Aces at CenturyLink Arena. But in the end, the numbers caught up to them.
Alaska broke open a tie game with 1:34 remaining and went on to win the contest 3-2.
The winning goal was a bit of a fluky one.
“A shot at the net goes off the guy’s foot and goes in,” Idaho coach Hardy Sauter said.
It was a tough way for goalie Jerry Kuhn’s night to end. In all, he faced 48 shots. Idaho, meanwhile, managed just 18 shots on goal.
“Tonight for the most part, we were outplayed,” Sauter said. “Our goalie kept us in it long enough, but we get a bad (icing) call against us and then the puck ends up in our net. It’s too bad because every point is big, and once you get in an overtime or shootout you never know what could happen.”
If there was a positive in Idaho’s loss, it was the debut of Stephen Schultz, who was assigned to the Steelheads by their AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars.
Schultz scored the first goal of the game early in the first period on a power play.
“That was definitely a plus,” the forward said. “To score right away is a big thing. It gets the team going and the building going. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t what you wanted to achieve at the end of the night.”
