“We battle for each other and there are no egos on this team,” Ice Dogs goalie Gavin Nieto said after stopping 18 shots to preserve the win. “What counts the most for everyone is wins and we’ve been doing a lot of that lately.”

The win gives Ice Dogs a 46-8-3 record which set the franchise record for wins and points in a season. The previous high for regular-season wins was 45 in 2013-14 and the previous high for points was 91 in that same season when the Ice Dogs went on to win the Robertson Cup for the second time.

“This is a fun team to coach,” Ice Dogs coach Trevor Stewart said. “A different guy steps up every night. This weekend, we had three of our regular guys out of the lineup and the guys who came in stepped up and got the job done.”

The Ice Dogs still have three regular season games left against the Kenai River Brown Bears starting at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Big Dipper. The two teams also meet at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday to close out the regular season.

One win in that series would clinch home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs and a complete sweep would give the Ice Dogs the most points ever in an NAHL regular season, according to general manager Rob Proffit.

The Ice Dogs dominated Saturday night’s game by outshooting the Titans 50-19, but they only managed to get two pucks past New Jersey netminder Jack Berry.

After a scoreless first period, the Ice Dogs scored twice in the second to take the lead for good.

Clay Cross accounted for the first goal when he fired a shot from between the faceoff circles that found its way through Berry’s pads and dribbled across the red line at 1:18 of the second period. Tyler Tomberlin and Reggie Lutz earned assists on the play.

Lutz scored the eventual game-winning goal at 9:11 of the second with a blast that went over Berry’s right shoulder for a power-play score.

Tomberlin and Adam Kleven assisted on the game-winner.

New Jersey ended Nieto’s bid for a shutout when Raymond Brice ripped a shot into the back of the net at 11:34 of the third period.

“Sure it would have been nice to get a shutout,” Nieto said. “In that situation I just had to stay mentally focused, put it in the past and move on.”

The Ice Dogs hope to be moving on to even more heights this weekend when they face the Brown Bears to close out the regular season.

Contact the News-Miner sports department at 459-7586.