PENSACOLA, FL. – The Rail Yard Dawgs (20-8-3) fought through two late major penalty kills, including more than two minutes of a 5-on-3 penalty kill, but fell 3-2 in overtime to the Pensacola Ice Flyers on Friday night. Jarrad Vroman and Mac Jansen scored for Roanoke.
Roanoke choked Pensacola’s offense in the first period, allowing just four shots in the opening frame. A beautiful drop pass by Nick DeVito led to the Vroman blast at 10:10 that opened the scoring, and also extended CJ Stubbs’s franchise record point streak to 11 games on the secondary assist. Roanoke took that advantage into the first intermission.
The second period was all Roanoke still, as the Dawgs had 13 shots to Pensacola’s seven. Yet, a Garrett Milan missile from the high slot gave the Ice Flyers a game-tying power play goal just short of the halfway point in regulation. The game was tied 1-1 entering the final frame of regulation.
Things got wild in the third period. Koltyn Olynek gave the Ice Flyers the lead just short of the four-minute mark on a loose puck between the hashes, and then all of the Internet went out in the entire building, almost completely compromising the scorekeeping process and causing two delays of longer than 10 minutes to assess penalties. Roanoke had more than two minutes of a 5-on-3 major penalty kill after Spencer Kennedy was given a slew-footing game misconduct. Roanoke got back to even strength, and Jansen tied the score just over halfway through the third period. A scrum that developed into multiple fights sent Roanoke’s Billy Vizzo and Sean Leonard along with Pensacola’s Olynek to the locker room with game misconducts at the 17:50 mark, but the Dawgs prevailed into overtime despite being on another major penalty kill. A Milan power play shot 25 seconds into overtime gave Pensacola the victory.
Roanoke will stay on the road tomorrow, January 28 at 8:05 p.m. EST to face the Pensacola Ice Flyers at Pensacola Bay Center. 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