Ice Dogs roll past Steel in dominant series sweep
By Caleb Jones
The Ice Dogs were in Marshall, Minnesota, to take on the Chippewa Steel on Friday and Saturday. They put together 12 goals over two nights for blowout wins in a sweep.
Friday: Ice Dogs put seven past Steel behind six different scorers for dominant win It was all Ice Dogs in the opener. The team put up seven goals, coming from six different scorers, to roll past the Steel 7-1 on Friday.
“We just came in with the right mindset – that it’s going to be a team victory, and the guys proved it,” head coach Ryan Theros said of the performance. “Our depth and the way we work as a team is going to win us games. We’re going to win with some big margins if we continue to stay on task.”
The first period saw Fairbanks leave little in doubt from the beginning. Wyatt Carlson initiated the scoring around nine minutes in, leading to three others joining before the intermission. Ignus Locmelis and Luc Plante both scored their first of the season – their goals bookended another from Brendan Gillmore to put the squad on top 4-0.
Thomas Corneillie joined the scoresheet to start the second before Gillmore earned a pair, making him the only skater in the contest to net more than one. Rounding out the group was Cam VanSickle in the closing moments of the period, extending the lead to 7-0.
After seven unanswered, Chippewa eventually cracked the board late in the third. It denied the Ice Dogs a shutout, but did little to change the game’s trajectory, as Fairbanks skated away to a 7-1 win.
With the lopsided scoresheet, the Ice Dogs outshot their opponent 21-16 on goal through two periods, and converted seven of those over that span, giving them a 33% shot percentage as a team. The Steel balanced the overall attempts in the third, seeing the game end with both teams having 28.
“We talk a lot about connectivity,” Theros said about the shot efficiency. “If we stay connective and communicate on the ice, we’re going to be able to have our conversion rate a lot higher in situations where we don’t have to muddle pucks at the net and just bang away goals – we can have those nice goals where everybody touches the puck… the personnel we have in the locker room is really showing, and that’s what we’ve built from the beginning. It’s just showing that we can do it, not with less effort, but doing it the right way and playing the right way.”
For Fairbanks, Cole Burke had a standout night in terms of assists, as he dished out four of his team’s seven. In the net, Mason McElroy stood strong, saving 27 of 28 shots faced for a .964 save percentage.
“[McElroy] came out very determined and dialed in from the start,” Theros said of the goalkeeping performance. “The guys really wanted the shutout for him. He’s been very consistent from the beginning – phenomenal teammate and the guys really love playing in front of him.” Saturday: Ice Dogs shutout Steel for series sweep Looking for another strong performance, the Ice Dogs were back in action on Saturday. They put up five more goals against the Steel, earning a sweep with a 5-0 win.
“We talked about being consistent,” Theros said on putting the two performances together. “That was our word we used throughout today. To be consistent you have to work hard and bring it both games – you can’t just be satisfied with winning on Friday. We have to stay consistent because down the road come playoffs, those games are going to be back to back and you’re going to have to bring it in both.”
It wasn’t a barrage of goals in the opening period like it was the night prior. In fact, neither team got on the board for the first scoreless frame of the series.
However, the Ice Dogs didn’t have to wait long in the second. The team’s leading scorer Adam Timm picked up his 11th of the year, this time on the power play, 42 seconds into the period. It kicked off the first of three, giving the team their third period with that amount or more in the series.
Other goals came courtesy
Gage Leonard (12) and teammates celebrate during a contest between the Ice Dogs and Kenai River Brown Bears.
COURTESY OF KRISTEN PEARSON
