TROTWOOD — The Dayton Gems have struggled to score this season. But not lately. The red-hot offense was at it again Tuesday as Dayton survived a late scare to defeat the Quad City Mallards 4-3 at Hara Arena.

The Gems had outscored Bloomington and Laredo 15-2 in two previous wins, and were hungry for more.

“It’s a bit of a consolation prize with the season coming to an end,” Jonathan Ornelas said of the recent goal explosion. “It’s good to see we can play some solid hockey.”

Ornelas (two points), Nick Fanto, Brett Lutes and Matt Baxter scored four unanswered for Dayton (23-27-13), while Larry Sterling made 41 saves to claim his third win in four days. He got his paddle down in the dying seconds to prevent a late equalizer.

“Larry’s been great,” said head coach Brian Gratz. “We have good goaltenders who have made some timely saves.”

Dayton overcame an early goal to go up 2-1. Fanto, who has had a good run in the later stages of the season, buried a one-timer past David Brown for a two-goal cushion late in the second before Lutes added another to build a 4-1 lead at intermission. Third-period goals from John Snowden and Brandon Marino prompted some nailbiting among the Hara crowd.

• The Gems end their home schedule against Fort Wayne on Saturday for Pack the House Night. A portion of every ticket sale will go to the family of 1-year-old Lakeview, Ohio, resident Caleb Zwiebel. Caleb was paralyzed in an auto accident Aug. 9, 2011. ... Dayton forward Nic Polaski was named Central Hockey League Player of the Week. The rookie from Colorado Springs had four goals and two assists with a plus-4 rating in three games.