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FAIRBANKS — The Fairbanks Ice Dogs built an early three-goal lead and survived a late rally from the Kenai River Brown Bears to beat their North American Hockey League West Division rival 3-2 on Saturday night in Soldotna.

Fairbanks (7-7-1) had a flurry of offense in the first period, scoring all three of its goals in a four-minute span.

“It was nice to see,” Ice Dogs coach Josh Hauge said. “All four lines were buzzing.”

Kyle Politz got things going with a shorthanded goal with 5 minutes, 14 seconds remaining in the first period.

“Kyle Politz played great tonight, and he’s been working hard for us all year,” Hauge said. “I’m glad to see him get rewarded for that.”

Sharp passing from Andrew Herbert and Michael Juola set up goals by Dane Shaugabay with 4:31 left and Johan Skinnars with 1:39 to go, respectively, giving the Ice Dogs a 3-0 lead at the first intermission.

Brett Lubanski put Kenai River (4-13-1) back into the game with 8:27 remaining in the third period when he got a turnover in Fairbanks’ zone and immediately scored.

“It was a boom-boom quick turnover, and it was in the net quick,” Hauge said.

The suddenness of the goal put the Ice Dogs on their heels, he said, and it led to the Brown Bears’ second score by Brad Duwe 50 seconds later.

Mike Taffe made 31 saves for the Ice Dogs, improving to 4-1-0.

The Ice Dogs bounced back from a 3-1 loss Friday night, an effort that resulted in leading goal-scorers Mark Pustin and Jared Larson sitting out Saturday night because Hauge was unhappy with their play.

“We need 20 guys to play hard every night,” he said. “... (Pustin and Larson) have been great for us a lot this year, but these are young men, and we want to show them that you have to try hard every night.”

After losing three of their past four games, Saturday’s win was a boost for the Ice Dogs, but Hauge said they have a mental hurdle to get over and will need to stack up more victories to do so.

“We need to start stringing some games together,” he said. “We’ve got some guys who are good hockey players and are kind of second-guessing themselves.”

Contact the News-Miner sports department at 459-7581.