Right wing Reggie Lutz scored twice; center Clay Cross and left wing Tyler Tomberlin each had two assists; and goaltender CJ Boothe recorded 16 saves for Fairbanks, which raised its first-place record in the Midwest to 30-6-3 for 63 points in the standings. 

Jordan Hank scored in the second period and Nicholas Nast made 24 saves for the Brown Bears, who are in sixth place in the division at 3-35-1 for seven points.

The Ice Dogs finished 1 for 12 on the power play, and were 0 for 11 with the extra skater until Evan Somoza ended the skid with 57 seconds left in the third period. Somoza’s fourth goal and 30th point of the season was aided by Adam Kleven and Mitchell Baumann.

“At the end of the day, I don’t think we made enough plays on the power play,’’ Ice Dogs head coach Trevor Stewart assessed after the game.

“They had a good game plan in attacking us with their penalty kill,’’ Stewart said, “and our best players are on the power play, and our best players weren’t our best players tonight.”

Though Fairbanks is 11-0-0 in the season series, it has a lot of respect for Kenai River, which was physical and occasionally took away passing lanes on Thursday night.

“It’s tough going through a year maybe that they’re having, but players are still battling and their coaches are still involved,” Stewart said. “They want to get their players better, and it’s always a tough game when you play them.”

The Ice Dogs were tough on penalty killing, turning away six power plays by the Brown Bears.

“Blocking shots, getting to the puck first,” Boothe said. “Every time they entered the zone, we never gave them any time. We just got the puck and dumped it out.”

Boothe made an impressive save when Ethan Butcher entered the Fairbanks zone after the Brown Bears forward finished serving a roughing penalty that started at 6:09 of the third period.

Butcher collected a long pass from a teammate and attempted a backhand on Boothe’s stick side, but his shot was greeted by Boothe’s pad.

“The penalty (clock) was counting down and I was yelling, telling my guys to come back,’’ Boothe said. “I guess they didn’t hear me and the guy (Butcher) came out of the box. He got the puck and I was like, ‘Here we go.’ ‘‘

Said Stewart, “CJ was there and everybody on the bench was confident that he was going to make that play.”

Hank made it a 1-1 score at 14:31 of the first period after he gained a faceoff draw by Brown Bears teammate Austin Junger and whipped the puck in off of Boothe’s glove-side shoulder. 

Cayden Cahill had provided the game’s first goal for Fairbanks at 5:51 of the first, scoring from just inside the left circle with Cross’s pass from the right circle. Liam Stirtzinger had the other assist on Cahill’s 17th goal of the season.

Cross and Ryner Gorowsky set up Logan Coomes, the NAHL’s third-leading scorer, for the go-ahead goal at 18:53 of the first period. Coomes gained the puck in the neutral zone and skated to just inside the left circle to send a wrist shot past Nast. 

It was the 21st goal and 52nd point of the season for the left wing. Gorowsky, the No. 2 scorer in the Tier II Junior A league, notched his 35th assist and 59th point of 2015-16.

At 5:09 of the second period, Lutz gave Fairbanks a 3-1 lead by taking advantage of a bounce for the first of his back-to-back goals.

Nast denied Tomberlin’s shot from the low slot and Tomberlin followed the rebound to the left side of the net. He centered a pass to Lutz in the mid slot and Lutz fired a shot that seemingly bounced in off of Nast’s stomach.

“I honestly don’t know where it went,’’ Lutz said. “The puck was wobbling and I ripped it, and I saw the (goal) light go on.”

Lutz, with help from Tomberlin and Josef Ingman, lit the lamp again at 18:55 of the third period with a shot from the blue line that went into an empty net after Nast was pulled for an extra attacker.

The series continues at 7:30 tonight and the Ice Dogs and Brown Bears meet again at the same time on Saturday night.

Contact sports editor Danny Martin at 459-7586. Follow him on Twitter:

@newsminersports.