ECHL - Alaska Aces

Alaska Aces Change Name, Logo

Hockey team alters logo, colors for competition in new league

Alaska's only professional sports franchise, the Aces hockey team, named its new coach Wednesday and also tinkered with its name.

The Alaska Aces announced the hiring of Davis Payne as the team's seventh coach and fifth in 17 months. Payne, 32, was most recently coach of the Florence (S.C.) Pride of the ECHL, where he won at least 40 games in each of his two full years as coach.

Payne replaces Perry Florio, who guided the Aces to a 9-7-3 record in the final 19 games of last season but declined to return to Alaska as the permanent head coach. Florio replaced Payne as coach in Florence last week.

The Aces suffered their fourth consecutive losing season (21-46-5) in 2002-03.

The Aces also altered their name, becoming the Alaska Aces. Aces officials said the change allows the team to better represent the entire state. The team's logo and colors also changed. The Aces kept a polar bear as their mascot but the colors are now white, black, silver and powder blue.

The Aces begin their first season in the ECHL, a 32-team AA league stretching across the country, at home on Friday, Oct. 24 against the Fresno Falcons.

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