This Time, Moose Don’t Let Ice Dogs Beat Them : Hockey: Minnesota wins for first time in three meetings, 5-3.

The Minnesota Moose were fast becoming the Ice Dogs’ personal saviors, having lost to Los Angeles twice in two trips to the Sports Arena.

That trend ended Wednesday night, when the Moose won, 5-3, in front of an announced 1,261.

And the Ice Dogs were really looking forward to playing the Moose. They had outscored Minnesota, 12-3, in the previous two games and the last game stopped a three-game losing streak.

Since the Moose will be back on Sunday, the Ice Dogs (7-5-2) will get another chance to stop a three-game losing streak against Minnesota (5-9-1).

Minnesota? Wasn’t this a team the Ice Dogs should have beaten?

“Well . . . we thought so,” said Patrik Augusta, who scored his team-leading 11th goal in the second period. “[Ice Dog Coach John Van Boxmeer] didn’t say anything to us after the game, but he sure will tomorrow. We needed this one and we didn’t get it done.”

If the first two games were easy, this one never was.

After Todd Gillingham redirected Steve Bancroft’s cross-pass to give the Ice Dogs a 1-0 lead in the first period, the Moose came back to take a 2-1 lead midway through the second period on goals by Andy Schneider and Sandy Smith.

Augusta’s goal tied it, 2-2, at 15:31 in the second period for the Ice Dogs. The Dogs followed that with a flurry of five shots at Moose goalie Dave Gagnon, who has a 4.86 goals-against average in eight games.

The fifth one, a chip in by John Byce after a shot by Rob Kenny came to him, went in at 16:22 and the Ice Dogs had a 3-2 lead.

But with less than a minute to play in the period, the Ice Dogs let a pass get away that Minnesota’s Stephane Moran took and gave to Schneider, who scored past a falling Dave Littman. Littman may have been out too far for Van Boxmeer’s liking because Chuck Thuss started the third period.

But Thuss had little help in stopping Yvon Corriveau from scoring a power-play goal at 16:59. The Ice Dogs had several opportunities to tie but found themselves pulling Thuss with a little more than a minute left to gain a man advantage.

Then Larry DePalma scored an empty-net goal at 19:00 to ensure the Moose’s victory.

Ice Dog Notes

The Ice Dogs are 0-3 without Hubie McDonough, who was traded for future considerations on Saturday. McDonough is not coming back until March 31, as a member of the Orlando Solar Bears.