“We tried a take a business-like approach,’’ Ice Dogs head coach Trevor Stewart, by cellphone, said of Fairbanks’ approach to the third period Friday. “We started the game off a little slow, and the guys understood the gravity of the situation.”

The Ice Dogs understood it well enough to tack on two more goals in the third period to secure a 4-1 win and another playoff series in the Tier II Junior A league.

“Once we were up 3-1, there was a lot of confidence on the bench,” Stewart said. “You could see guys (on the ice) digging in, understanding that we were going to be moving on.”

Right wing Ryner Gorowsky scored the game-winner in the second period. Center Clay Cross finished the game with a goal and an assist, while center Ryan Kero and right wing Mitchell Baumann provided two assists each, and goaltender Gavin Nieto stopped 19 of 20 shots. 

The Ice Dogs, 3-1 in the playoffs after posting the NAHL’s best regular-season mark of 49-8-3 for a league-record 101 points, will be back in the Big Dipper Arena at 7:30 p.m. Friday and next Saturday for the first two games of the best-of-five division final series.

The Ice Dogs will play host to either the second-seeded Janesville Jets or the third-seeded Minnesota Wilderness, last season’s Robertson Cup champions.

The Wilderness lead 2-1 in the Midwest semifinal series after pulling out a 2-1 victory in double overtime Friday night in the Northwood Credit Union Arena in Cloquet, Minnesota.

The Wilderness can take the series with a win in Game 4 at 4:30 p.m. ADT today in Cloquet. If a fifth game is needed, it will be played at 4 p.m. ADT Sunday in the Janesville Ice Arena in Janesville, Wisconsin.

The Midwest Division final series winner joins the titlists from the East, Central and South divisions for the Robertson Cup Championship Tournament on May 12-15 in the Braemer Arena in Edina, Minnesota. The Ice Dogs captured the NAHL’s top prize in 2011 and 2014.

On Friday night, the Ice Dogs captured the Midwest semifinal series against a Chill squad, which exactly a week ago at the Big Dipper, overwhelmed Fairbanks 6-1. The Ice Dogs rebounded with a 6-1 win in Game 2 last Saturday and gained a 3-0 victory last Sunday in Game 3 in the Dipper.

“They’re a good team and they had been playing playoff hockey for the last month or so,’’ Stewart said of the Chill, who were 3-1-0 in its four games of the regular season. Coulee Region ended the season at 34-29-1.

Fairbanks started Friday’s game in La Crosse with defenseman’s Josef Ingman’s goal at 44 seconds into the contest. Left wing Logan Coomes and center Todd Burgess provided the assists.

Larry Jungwirth, with assists from Justin Kendall and Matt Doran, evened the score for Coulee at 8:39 of the opening period. It was the first shot that Nieto saw Friday.

“He (Nieto) really dialed it in after that and made a couple of big plays,” Stewart said. “The defensemen in front of him did a pretty good job, for the most part, of letting him see everything.”

Gorowsky produced the game-winner at 4:07 of the second period with a blast from the top of a circle. Cross and defenseman Luke Orysiuk assisted on the Bently University commit’s league-high fourth goal of the playoffs.

“Ryner was an absolute horse tonight. He was working his butt off,” Stewart said.

Defenseman Jakob Stridsberg scored his third playoff goal and made it 3-1 at 7:21 of the third period with help from Kero and Baumann.

Kero and Baumann set up Cross for an insurance goal at 13:22 of the third.

Matiss Kivlenieks recorded 27 saves for the Chill. Kivlenieks has committed to Minnesota State, which is a Western Collegiate Hockey Association rival of the Alaska Nanooks.

Other results

Three other NAHL teams wrapped up their semifinal series on Friday, all by three-game sweeps.

Pennsylvania squads  Johnstown Tomahawks and the Aston Rebels will meet next week in the inaugural East Division final series after each won Friday.

Johnstown edged the visiting New Jersey Titans 2-1 in overtime and Aston downed the host Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights 6-1. 

The Wichita Falls (Texas) Wildcats capped a South Division semifinal sweep of the Odessa Jackalopes with a 6-3 in Odessa, Texas.

Wichita Falls will play for the South title against the winner of the semifinal series between Topeka (Kansas) RoadRunners and Lone Star (Texas) Brahmas. 

Topeka leads the series at 2-1 after a 5-2 win Friday night in Kansas.

The Austin (Minnesota) Bruins and the Bismarck (North Dakota) Bobcats each led 2-1 in their respective Central Division semifinal series.

Host Austin won 6-3 Friday over the Minot (North Dakota) Minotauros and the Brookings Blizzard avoided elimination with a 2-1 win over Bismarck on Friday night in Brookings, South Dakota.

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

@newsminersports.