Magicians complete three-game sweep of Ice Dogs on Sunday
Magicians goalie Andy Beran stopped 91 of 98 shots in a series sweep of the Fairbanks Ice Dogs to move his team onto the Midwest Finals.
Midwest Division Semi-Finals, Game 3: MN Magicians 3 @ Fairbanks 2 (Magicians win series, 3-0) – The Minnesota Magicians jumped out to a 3-0 lead and held off a late Ice Dogs rally to pick up a 3-2 win in Game 3 on Sunday to complete a weekend sweep of the series and advance to the Midwest Division Finals.
The Magicians went up 1-0 midway though the 1st period as Trevor Kukkonen scored his first goal of the playoffs.
The lead increased to 2-0 in the 2nd period as Jack Cronin scored his third goal of the series thanks to a one-time blast on the power play. Less than three minutes later, the Magicians made it 3-0 as Robert Christy scored his first goal of the series. The Ice Dogs finally got on the board late in the period as Mason Plante scored on the power play to make it 3-1.
In the 3rd period, Ty Naaykens scored for the Ice Dogs just over five minutes into the period to make it 3-2. However, that’s all the Ice Dogs would get as Magicians goalie Andy Beran held the fort the rest of the way.
Beran would end up with 24 saves in the game and would end up stopping 91 of 98 shots in the three game sweep. Kayden Hargraves took the loss, making 15 saves before being lifted for Ryan Keyes, who stopped all 20 shots that came his way.
The Magicians now head back to Minnesota and await the winner of the Kenai River vs. Janesville series.
