Ice Dogs skate to weekend sweep of Anchorage Wolverines
By Gavin Struve
After splitting their previous weekend series against their rival, the Anchorage Wolverines, a month ago at home, the Fairbanks Ice Dogs left no doubt in cruising to wins Friday and Saturday. They tallied twice as many shots as the Wolverines on Friday and over three times as many on Saturday while receiving strong play in the net from Charlie Menard.
The sweep was the Ice Dogs’ first at home against any opponent since they beat Anchorage on back-to- back days to end the 2023-24 season this past April.
Friday: Ice Dogs: 4,
Wolverines: 0
The Ice Dogs became the first team to shut out the NAHL Midwest Division rival Anchorage Wolverines, jumping on their in-state rival early and winning 3-0 on Friday. The win also marked the Ice Dogs’ first shutout of any team this year (since a Dec. 10, 2023 win over the Minnesota Wilderness).
“We just had a really good gameplan going in and a really good week of practice,” Ice Dogs head coach Ryan Theros said postgame. “And we’re kind of really thinking that it doesn’t really matter what team is coming in, just consider it another opponent and continue to work on our craft.”
FRIDAY: Fairbanks recorded more shots on goal in each period (recording 38 to double the Wolverines’ total of 17 shots on the night) and converted on 2-of-5 power-play opportunities while holding Anchorage scoreless on four.
“The emphasis all week was keeping them under a certain amount of shots (25), which we did, and taking care of the [defensive] zone with good sticks and good posture, and the guys bought into it very well,” Theros said.
The Ice Dogs also tallied just four penalties and 10 minutes in the box compared to nine penalties and 44 penalty minutes for the Wolverines.
Ice Dogs captain Cole Burke fired at the goal in the opening minute. That set the tone as the Ice Dogs peppered Anchorage goalie Roberto Henriquez with shots in the opening minutes and broke through 6:56 in via Luca Ricciardi (who seemingly caught and shot the puck in one motion), assisted by Wyatt Carlson and Arsenii Vorobev.
Fairbanks accumulated 12 shots in the opening period while holding the Wolverines to six (two-thirds of which came on the power play in the final two minutes).
The Ice Dogs doubled their lead 3:04 into the second period with a power-play goal from Cam VanSickle. He essentially posted up in front of the net, took a direct feed from Kyle Rohrer, turned and maneuvered the puck around the goalie and into the net. Menard prevented the Wolverines from retribution less than a minute later.
Rohrer tacked on a power-play goal of his own at the 12:55 mark, assisted by Adam Timm (who was also credited with an assist on VanSickle’s goal) and VanSickle.
The Ice Dogs added a goal with just over five minutes left in the fourth period, with a fourth different goal scorer (Aidan Bergner via Luc Plante and Gage Leonard).
Saturday: Ice Dogs: 4, Wolverines: 1 The Ice Dogs struck relatively early on Saturday, just as they had on Friday, scoring on their fourth shot when Ian Norkevicus stole a pass at the center of the ice. He got it to Nick Madsen, who steadied the puck and executed a shot between a defender and the goalie at the 4:51 mark, by way of a pass from Kyle Rohrer.
The Wolverines evened the game and scored their first goal of the weekend when Jakub Bednarik scored off a couple of quick-hitting passes from Brock Devlin and Drew Nelson at the 9:53 mark.
The Ice Dogs posted a very similar shot differential in the first period of Saturday’s game (13-to-6) in comparison to Friday (12-to-6) and scored the same amount of times. They increased that differential in the second period, posting nine more shots than their visitors (13-to-4). In total, they outshot the Wolverines 40-13 on Saturday.
The Ice Dogs nabbed their second goal at the 8:12 mark in the second period when Justin Collins scored off of an assist from Norkevicus and Carlson. Norkevicus corralled the puck at the other end of the ice, sent it forward, got it back near the net and moved it to an in-breaking Collins.
Fairbanks doubled its lead 2:57 into the final frame when Luc Plante got the puck behind the net from Gage Leonard and sent it to Aidan Bergner for the quick goal, his second of the series.
Rohrer added a fourth and final goal 12:42 into the third period with help from Norkevicus and Timm. Rohrer led the Ice Dogs with four points on the weekend, posting one goal and one assist in both games.
Menard started both games and accrued a strong .967 save percentage, allowing one goal on 30 shots.
The Ice Dogs are back at the Big Dipper Ice Arena next Friday and Saturday to host Kenai River, who they’re 3-1 against this season. Following this weekend’s wins over the Wolverines, the Ice Dogs are now 6-2 in Alaska Airlines Club 49 Cup games, winning four straight against the other Alaska teams.
An Anchorage Wolverine battles with Wyatt Carlson of the Fairbanks Ice Dogs in a March matchup. The Wolverines were the only team from the 49th state competing in the 2024 Robertson Cup Playoffs.
PICTURES COURTESY OF KRISTEN PEARSON
