ROANOKE, VA. – The Rail Yard Dawgs smothered the Macon Mayhem 3-0 on Saturday night at Berglund Center. Tom Aubrun had a 26-save shutout against his former team, while Brady Heppner, Matt O’Dea, and Mac Jansen scored for Roanoke.
The offense was rolling for the Dawgs once again to start the first period, as Roanoke unleashed 20 shots on the Macon net in the first period alone. Heppner found the back of the net right at the end of a power play chance to open the scoring at 13:51 for the hosts. Nick DeVito and Dillon Radin grabbed assists, as the Dawgs took that 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
The second period saw the game get a bit chippy, with 10 combined penalties between the two sides. Roanoke had a five-on-three power play, and O’Dea fired the puck into the net for the 2-0 lead at 9:04 in the middle period. It appeared that Macon got on the board late in the frame on a Tommy Munichello shot, but the Mayhem had previously played that puck with a high stick, and the goal was disallowed. Roanoke held the two-goal cushion into the second break.
The Dawgs called upon Aubrun a few more times in the third period than they had earlier in the game, but the Roanoke goalie kept things clean in the crease. Jansen was able to bat a rebounding puck into the Macon cage at 13:02 to make it 3-0 for the Dawgs. The game continued to be physical in the closing stages, but the Dawgs held on to earn the weekend sweep over Macon, beating them for the seventh time in as many tries in the weekend series.
Cody Karpinski made 42 stops on 45 shots faced for Macon in a great showing. Roanoke was 1-for-8 on the power play, while the Mayhem went 0-for-3.
Roanoke will hit the road next weekend starting Friday, January 13 at 7:15 p.m. EST to face the Fayetteville Marksmen at Crown Coliseum. Season tickets and single-game tickets are available by calling the Rail Yard Dawgs office, visiting the ‘Tickets’ page on our website, or by visiting the Berglund Center box office.
Photo Credit: Brian Collett // BC Captures