Last night the Ice Wolves went up against another team from the Midwest Division for the second-straight week. This time it was the Fairbanks Ice Dogs, who sit atop the Midwest with 55 points (26-9-1-2). The Ice Wolves entered the Big Dipper Ice Arena yesterday looking to extend their current win streak to four, which would set a new season high for them. This weekend marked the first-of-four straight on the road for New Mexico, which is their longest road trip of the season.
In the opening period the Ice Dogs came out very aggressive as they managed to get 18 shots on Henrik Laursen. One of their shots found the back of the net after Tyler Deweese (12) found the loose puck in the crease and put it home. The Ice Wolves finished the opening period with five shots and were unable to get any past the seventh best goalie in the NAHL, Mattias Scholl.
In the middle period the Ice Dogs increased their lead to two after Parker Brown (12) beat Laursen just 3:02 into the period. However :45 seconds later, Jackson Wille (4) made the most of a Fairbanks turnover by going on a breakaway and beating Scholl short side. Shortly after the halfway point in the period and while on the power play, Sean Henry (3) threw a puck towards Scholl that deflected off him and in. Fairbanks went on to score one more time before the end of the period, giving them a 3-2 lead heading into the final period. Shots favored Fairbanks after 40 minutes, 25-17.
In the final period, New Mexico continued to pressure the Ice Dogs and Scholl. They had tons of offensive pressure, as they were able to put up 13 shots during the period. One of their shots came off the stick of Jackson Wille (5), as he was able to score his second goal of the night. It was the fourth-straight game that the Ice Wolves had a player score two goals in a game. Fairbanks had some scoring chances as well but Laursen was standing on his head last night and denied all ten shots Fairbanks threw at him in the third. After the horn sounded the game went into overtime after being tied, 3-3. The Ice Dogs went on to score 2:40 into the five-minute overtime to extend their point streak to nine. The game-winner went to Oliver Kjaer (16) after he scored while his team was on the power play.
While the Ice Wolves did not earn the full two points they did however earn a point, which puts them on their longest point streak of the season (4). Laursen finished the game with 33 saves and had a few that might show up on the NAHL ‘Plays of the Week’. The Ice Wolves record is now 8-25-2-2 (20pts). They will close out their season series against the Ice Dogs tonight at 7:30pm AKST.