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I know Rob Proffitt doesn’t want to talk any more about the scheduling snafu that left the Fairbanks Ice Dogs in Topeka for all five games of their playoff series.

And I’d guess he would hate to use it as an excuse if his team failed to make it to the Robertson Cup Tournament — something the Ice Dogs must now win their final two games to do after Thursday’s 5-3 loss.

But I can’t help but wonder if maybe that game (and potentially the series) would have turned out differently if the Ice Dogs had come back to Fairbanks for the final three contests as originally planned.

And 2,000+ screaming fans decked out in white isn’t the only reason why.

While there’s no doubt in my mind Proffitt and his staff did the best job anyone could do preparing the Dogs for Thursday’s game, it was a tough task. When things are going right for a team, as they had been with the Dogs for the past month or so, you want to keep doing what your doing. You have a routine that works, a system the players are comfortable and excelling in, and you don’t want to change that.

But stuck on the road, the Ice Dogs could hardly have had a choice.

Not only did they have to figure out a way to kill five days between Game 2 and 3, they had to trek to and from Kansas City just to practice most of the time, not getting back into the Kansas Expocentre, the RoadRunners’ rink, the day before the game.

That’s got to leave a team out of sorts.

It's something that never would have happened if they were practicing within the familiar walls of the Big Dipper.

It’s all a moot point if the Ice Dogs bounce back — as they usually do after disappointing losses — and punch their ticket to St. Louis in the next two games.

But as we wait to see what their future holds, I can’t help but wonder if things would have been different in Fairbanks.

I think so.