FAIRBANKS—The Fairbanks Ice Dogs are on a roll.
The Ice Dogs used a four-goal outburst in the third period Friday night to break open a tight game and post a 5-1 North American Hockey League victory against the Wenatchee Wild in front of 2,710 spectators in Wenatchee, Wash.
The victory boosted the Ice Dogs to 6-0-2 in their first eight games of the 2010-11 season. All eight games have been on the road.
The Ice Dogs started slowly, but picked up steam as the game went on.
“I was a little disappointed with our first period,” Ice Dogs coach Josh Hauge said. “We were standing around and I think we got caught up in hoopla and (game) production of playing in Wenatchee.
After a scoreless first period, the Ice Dogs took a 1-0 lead in the second when John Stampohar banged home a rebound with assists to Tyler Voigt and Gave Levin.
“We played well and I think that hard-working goal got us going,” Haugesaid.
Voigt scored what proved to be the game-winning goal at 4:05 of the second off an assist from JT Osborn.
After Wenatchee got on the scoreboard at 7:36, the Ice Dogs broke it wide open when Sean O’Rourke scored goals at the 8:05 and 10:09 mark to put the game away. Levin assisted on O’Rourke’s second goal. Zach Blaisdell rounded out the scoring at 15:15 off an assist from Alec Hajdukovich.
“We finished our chances,” Hauge said of the third-period eruption. “We’ve been pretty opportunistic so far this season and we did that in the third period tonight.”
Goaltender Joe Phillippi stopped 29 of the 30 shots that came his way.
“It was his best performance of the year,” Hauge said. “We needed to see that type of game from Joe, and Joe needed to have a game like that for himself.”
The two teams play again tonight and Sunday afternoon.
“Hopefully we can put together another strong game,” Hauge said. “If we could get a win here Saturday, it would be huge.”
Contact sports editor Bob Eley at 459.7581.
