Homestand Ends With Bang for Ice Dogs, 6-5

The Ice Dogs defeated the Houston Aeros, 6-5, in a game that went to an overtime shootout on Sunday in front of 5,937 at the Sports Arena.

Dan Lambert, Tracy Egeland and Todd Gillingham each converted their shootout shots and Ice Dog goalie Dave Littman stopped three out of four Houston shots.

For Los Angeles (11-7-2), it was the end of a 12-game homestand that included threats of the team closing. They survived it all with a 6-5-1 record.

“I thought they handled the adversity very well,” Ice Dog Coach John Van Boxmeer said. “Long homestands can be tough, especially under the circumstances.”

Still, the teams on Los Angeles’ recent homestand are teams the Ice Dogs had a great chance of beating, at least before the losses of Hubie McDonough and Dwayne Norris. Those teams are collectively under .500 at 81-83-13. Remember, the “13” in the International Hockey League is for a shootout loss.

“Hey, it doesn’t matter how you win as long as you win,” Van Boxmeer said. “We can’t run and gun like we used to. We don’t have an awful lot of game breakers--we have more lunch-pail guys. We get more ugly goals and play a little more physical. That makes it more fun for the fans too.”

Scoring has come hard as of late. Viktor Gordiouk, who was counted on to be a scorer particularly after recent departures, is in a slump and has a 7.4 shooting percentage. Patrik Augusta, the team’s leading scorer, hasn’t scored a goal in five games, dating back to Nov. 5. Still, the Ice Dogs had a seemingly safe lead, 4-2, after Todd Gillingham scored twice in the second period.

But it melted away in the first 48 seconds of the third period.

The Aeros scored twice within 12 seconds to tie the score, 4-4.

Player-coach Mark Hardy, who was close to being traded three weeks ago when the team was close to folding, put the Ice Dogs back in the lead, 5-4, with his power-play goal two minutes later. But the Aeros came right back and scored on their own power play as Sylvain Turgeon scored at 3:17 to tie the score, 5-5.