FAIRBANKS – The Fairbanks Ice Dogs have turned the score 3-2 into a lucky count again.
For the second straight night in Wichita Falls, Texas, the Ice Dogs came from behind to top the Wildcats 3-2 on Saturday in front of 6,277 fans at the Kay Yeager Coliseum.
The 3-2 score, however, was unlucky for the Ice Dogs two weeks ago when they dropped three straight games to Kenai River. Earlier in the season, Fairbanks won four of five games by that score.
The Ice Dogs again spotted Wichita Falls the first goal Saturday, as Chris Leone put one past Fairbanks goalie Mike Taffe just 61 seconds into the contest.
It took barely a minute for the Ice Dogs to respond, as Tyler Voigt scored his eighth goal of the season off a helper from Jon Feavel.
Fairbanks took the lead for good 46 seconds into the second period when Kyle Politz tallied with the help of the team\’s leading scorers, Mark Pustin and Michael Juola.
Fairbanks native and team captain Jon Waggoner then scored shorthanded off a Politz assist for a 3-1 advantage at 15:38 of the second period.
Wichita Falls moved to 3-2 midway through the third on a Steven Hoshaw score but failed to get the equalizer despite an 18-5 advantage in shots for the period. The Wildcats pulled their goalie for a 6 on 4 advantage the final 19 seconds, but to no avail.
Taffe made 31 saves for Fairbanks, while PJ Musico stopped 24 pucks for Wichita Falls.
The Ice Dogs were 0 for 6 on the power play and the Wildcats were 0 for 4.
Fairbanks improved to 26-16-2 and remains in second place in the West Division while Wichita Falls is last in the South Division at 12-25-5.
The Ice Dogs now travel to Frisco, Texas, for games on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at the Texas Tornado (16-19-3).
Contact the News-Miner sports department at 459-7581.
