Long Beach Wins in Shootout

Andrei Vasilyev scored one goal and two assists and Mike Buzak stopped 30 of 33 shots as the Long Beach Ice Dogs defeated the Quebec Rafales, 4-3, in a shootout Friday night to stay in a first-place tie with the Utah Grizzlies in the Western Conference of the International Hockey League.

The Ice Dogs (7-5-1), playing their sixth game in 11 nights, improved to 3-3-0 on their seven-game trip. They were successful on four of nine shootout attempts, the Rafales on three of nine.

Quebec’s Francis Bouillon, Marc Rodgers and Michel Mongeau scored in a three-minute span of the second period to put the Rafales ahead 3-1.

Doug Ast, who had the late game-winning goal for the Ice Dogs on Wednesday night in Manitoba, made the score 3-2 with his fourth of the year at 13:28 of the second period, and Dan Lambert scored the equalizer midway through the third.