Ice Dogs right wing Ryner Gorowsky registered a natural hat trick during the five-goal burst in the second period Saturday and goaltender Gavin Nieto denied 27 of 28 shots by the Chill, who won 6-1 in Game 1 Friday.

The lopsided defeat in the playoff opener affected the way that the top-seeded Ice Dogs approached Saturday’s contest against the fourth-seeded Chill, of La Crosse, Wisconsin.

“(Friday) night’s game, we kind of felt like after breaking the record, we thought we were just going to come in here and just cream these (Coulee Region) guys; but they came back flying,” said right wing Cayden Cahill, who had a goal and an assist Saturday.

The record to which Cahill alluded was the NAHL-record 101 points the Ice Dogs gathered in the Midwest Division standings in the regular season. Their first-place mark of 49-8-3 was the best in the 22-team, Tier II Junior A  league in the regular season.

“(Friday) night’s game kind of bought us back ... we’ve got to play hard every single night,’’ Cahill said.

The Ice Dogs stepped up their defense in the first half, as evidenced by the teams combining for 10 shots — six for Coulee Region and four for Fairbanks.

The Ice Dogs didn’t give the Chill many opportunities through middle of the ice in the first period, and throughout the game. They also often forced Coulee Region’s shots wide during the first period.

“They possessed the puck quite a bit in the first period and I thought we did a decent job of keeping them to outside and limiting their opportunities,” Ice Dogs head coach Trevor Stewart said. “I don’t think Gavin had too much trouble with what he was seeing.

“The guys came out a little more spirited in the second period,” Stewart continued. “I don’t know if we were all that much better in terms of execution, but guys made some plays and found the back of the net in the second period.”

Center Todd Burgess, on the way to a four-point night, ignited the surge at 2:28 of the second period with a power-play shot that struck the right corner of the crossbar and curved behind Chill goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks. Right wing Reggie Lutz and defenseman Josef Ingman assisted Burgess.

Cahill rushed through the slot to tap in a rebound of Ingman’s attempt for the 2-0 lead at 4:44 of the second period Saturday. 

Chill forward Niko Luka interrupted the Ice Dogs’ momentum at 9:57, surprising Nieto with a power-play shot from Larry Jungwirth’s backdoor pass. Justin Kendall had the other assist.

Gorowsky responded and stretched Fairbanks’ lead with his first deposit of his first three-goal night in his two seasons with the Ice Dogs.

Gorowsky made it 3-1 at 10:39 of the second with a high shot off a rebound of a Burgess attempt. Defenseman Adam Kleven recorded the other assist.

A power-play backhand by Gorowsky, set up by Burgess and defenseman Alex Mehnert, pulled Fairbanks ahead 5-1 at 14:01 of the second period. Kivlenieks was replaced by Hunter Vorva after the goal.

Gorowsky, a Bentley University commit, was greeted by a shower of caps after he scored an unassisted power-play goal at 15:07 of the second.

“Today, we drove the net, got pucks to the net and we got greasy (hard-earned) goals,” Gorowsky said.” So I think that was the difference.”

Defenseman Jakob Stridsberg, with help from Burgess and Cahill, contributed his second straight postseason goal at 16:14 of the third period.

Ticket outlets for today’s game are at Sport King, from noon to 4 p.m.; Play It Again Sports, from noon to 5 p.m.; Eielson Air Force Base, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and at North Pole’s North Polar Expresso, which is open today from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The Big Dipper box office opens at 4 p.m. today.