Aces sign defenseman Jake Luthi
Published on March 8, 2007 under ECHL (ECHL)
Alaska Aces News Release
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The Alaska Aces elected not to make any moves prior to the March 7 trade deadline, but on Thursday, signed defenseman Jake Luthi to an ECHL contract fresh out of R.P.I.
Luthi's senior season at NCAA Division I Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ended last Saturday as the Engineers dropped a 4-1 decision to Colgate and were swept two games to none in a first round ECAC playoff series. The 24-year-old native of Palmer, Alaska (45 minutes north of Anchorage) finished tied for the team lead in scoring with 27 points on four goals and 23 assists while playing in all 36 games for the 10-18-8 Engineers. Luthi played four years of high school hockey at Colony in the local area before spending two seasons in the USHL prior to enrolling at R.P.I. for the 2003-04 campaign.
As a sophomore in 2004-05, the 6-0, 195-pounder earned the team's Most Improved Player award and led all Engineer defensemen with six goals. A three-year teammate of ECHL all-star winger Kevin Croxton (currently on re-call by Alaska's AHL affiliate in Peoria), Luthi finished his collegiate career with 13 goals and 37 assists in 105 games.
Alaska saw its club-record 14-game home winning streak (the fourth-longest in ECHL history) snapped in a 3-2 overtime loss to Bakersfield Sunday, but the Aces are 19-1-2 in their last 22 games at home and 22-3-2 overall over their previous 27 games heading into tomorrow night's series opener with Long Beach at Sullivan Arena. Tomorrow and Saturday's face-offs have been set for 7:15 p.m., and the teams will wrap up the weekend with a Sunday starting time of 5:05 p.m., with a scheduled Fred Meyer post-game "Skate with the Aces." Alaska, at 41-13-4 the leader by six points over Las Vegas in the race for the best record in the ECHL, has beaten the 22-31-3 Ice Dogs in all three of their prior meetings this season, all of which have been played in Long Beach.
Olivier Filion leads the Aces with 26 goals and has at least a point in each of his last seven games. Even with Sunday's overtime loss, rookie goaltender Isaac Reichmuth remained unbeaten in his last six starts (4-0-2) and finished runner-up in voting for the ECHL Rookie of the Month award in February by posting a 1.38 goals against average and a .948 save percentage. Tickets for this weekend's games are available at participating Fred Meyer locations, by calling 258-ACES, or logging onto www.alaskaaces.com.
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