Photo (Courtesy Fairbanks Ice Dogs): Braydon Beahm (#11) – Midwest Star of the week; Hunter Hayes (#18) battles on a faceoff with Jackson Ernst (#6) behind.
Weekend Recap: The top two teams in the Midwest Division standings squared off at the Big Dipper Ice Arena in Fairbanks, Alaska. The sweep over Fairbanks extended the Windigo lead in the standings to eight points over Fairbanks and Anchorage. Anchorage swept Kenai River to move into a tie for second place with Ice Dogs at 72 points. Chippewa (60 points) was swept by the Minnesota Wilderness (58 points), moving the Wilderness to within two points of Chippewa for the fourth and final playoff position in the Midwest Division. Fairbanks and Chippewa each have one game in hand over the Windigo, Wolverines, and Wilderness, in the remaining regular season schedule.
Friday, March 28 – Windigo 6 at Ice Dogs 3: Fairbanks came out charging and outshot the Windigo 15 to 6 in the first period. However, the Windigo took advantage of a power play opportunity midway through the opening frame to get on the board first. Alexios Georgaklis won a battle for a loose puck at the faceoff dot. Harper Frey jumped on the puck and skated it into the corner. Frey then released a backhanded pass to Teddy Richardson, who was all alone at the top of the far faceoff circle. Richardson got all of a one-timer and blew the puck by the Ice Dogs’ netminder. Kyle Rohrer tied the game at one, just one minute into the middle frame after being left alone just 10 feet in front of Windigo netminder Lucas Szyszka. Richardson put the Windigo back in the lead just over two minutes later. Richardson buried the rebound of a Declan Burns shot from the point. Braydon Beahm scored his 30th goal of the year 8:08 into the second period to extend the Windigo lead to 3-1. Beahm picked up the puck in the high slot and maneuvered himself between two Fairbanks’ defenders before sliding the puck into the net. Rohrer answered again for Fairbanks to close the gap to one goal. Richardson completed is hat trick by pouncing on another rebound at the top of the crease and slapping it into the net. The second period closed with each team placing 11 shots on net and the Windigo leading 4-2. Five minutes into the third period, Hunter Hayes scored his 25th of the season, and 13th in 14 games since joining the Windigo. Harper Frey released a shot from the blue line that bounced off the Ice Dogs’ netminder and laid in the low slot. Hayes picked up the loose puck and went backhand to forehand to put the Windigo up 5-2 early in the third period. The Ice Dogs scored with 9 minutes remaining in the third period to come within 2 goals of the Windigo. The Ice Dogs, rallied by their sellout crowd of 2,242, applied significant pressure for the remainder of the game. They pulled their goalie with over two minutes remaining. Luke Baker took advantage of the empty net to score his 13th of the season and seal the victory for the Windigo. Szyszka earned his 27th win in net for the Windigo, making 36 saves. The Windigo mustered a total of 26 shots on net.
Saturday, March 29 – Windigo 5 at Ice Dogs 2 : The Windigo came out flying and jumped out to a three goal lead in the first period. Jackson Ernst took advantage of a little extra room during 4-on-4 play to strike first for the Windigo. He carried the puck along the far side then drove towards the net before releasing a shot that hit the Ice Dogs’ goalie’s shoulder and fell behind him into the net. Zach Cline was next. John Halverson picked up a pass from Ronnie Hill along the boards and headed towards the net. Halverson moved to his right as he approached the slot but was tripped up by a Fairbanks’ defender. As Halverson fell to the ice, he slid the puck to Cline who positioned himself near the far post. Cline promptly buried the puck to put his team up 2-0 with 7:51 remaining in the opening period. The Windigo took advantage of a power play opportunity in the waning minutes of the opening frame. Ernst intercepted a clearing attempt and slid the puck over to Hayes at the top of the faceoff circle. Hayes moved toward the net and spotted Braydon Beahm positioned along the far side in the low slot. Hayes passed the puck to Beahm. His one-timer resulted in his 31st goal of the year and put the Windigo up 3-0 with 3:26 remaining in the opening period. Fairbanks responded with a strong push to open the second period and got on the board just over 4 minutes into the middle frame. After a fortuitous media time out midway through the period, the Windigo were able to gain their composure and began applying some offensive pressure of their own. Felix Haibock restored the 3-goal lead by tipping in a Nate Farrell shot from the point. Fairbanks scored again at 17:25 to close the second period with the Windigo holding a 4-1 lead. Shots on goal during the first two periods slightly favored the Ice Dogs by the margin of 30 to 29. The Windigo came out strong in the third period and outshot their opponents 9 to 4. Fairbanks took advantage of an offensive zone faceoff to pull their goalie in favor of an extra attacker with 2:56 remaining. The Windigo won the ensuing faceoff and defenseman Michael Ryan rimmed the puck around the boards up to Ernst on the far side. Ernst chipped the puck off the boards and out to the neutral zone. Beahm picked up the loose puck and released a backhander from the offensive blue line that found the middle of the empty net. Lucas Szyszka made 32 saves to earn his 28th victory of the season. Augustana University commit Charlie Menard suffered the loss in net for Fairbanks, making 32 saves.
Coach’s Comments: Windigo head coach John Mitchell offered the following after the sweep over Fairbanks: “I am very proud of the effort our guys displayed this weekend. This is a tough building to play in and Fairbanks is a surging team. We took advantage of shooting lanes and got pucks to the net. We created traffic in front of their net and pounced on the rebounds. We moved the puck well. We maintained discipline and limited our penalties. Our penalty kill was perfect all weekend. Szyszka was stellar in net for us. He made some great saves that kept them off the board. He made a couple of saves on Friday when we were down two men late in the game that were spectacular. Teddy Richardson was on fire Friday and deserved the hat trick. After missing a few months of the season due to injury, he has started to find his groove again. It was great to see scoring from Beahm, Cline, Ernst, Hayes and Haibock. Our defense played strong all weekend. The four points we earned this weekend are huge in our quest for the division title. We have a long trip to Springfield coming up and we will turn our focus towards preparing for them.”
Up Next – The Windigo will return to the lower 48 states to visit Springfield on April 4-5. The Windigo conclude the regular season by landing in Janesville to take on the Jets on April 11-12. You can watch the Windigo while they are on the road at www.nahltv.com. The first round of the playoffs commence the weekend of April 18-19. We will keep you posted as to the playoff schedule once it has been determined.