ROANOKE, VA. – The Rail Yard Dawgs ran out of gas on Saturday night, losing 5-2 to the Huntsville Havoc at Berglund Center. Brady Heppner and Josh Nenadal each scored on the power play for Roanoke, with Bryce Martin assisting both.
Both teams struggled to get their offenses rolling in the first period, with the Dawgs outshooting Huntsville 8-6. Each team had a power play, and two nice passes by Martin and Nick Ford ended up finding Heppner alone at the near post to put the Dawgs up one at the 17:05 mark. That score held into the break.
The second period saw the Dawgs lose their focus for a bit, as they conceded four power play chances to the Havoc in the middle stanza alone. After plenty of saves and clearances throughout the middle 20 minutes, Huntsville’s Robbie Fisher was able to smack a high-bouncing puck under the crossbar at 17:52 to tie the score. It was 1-1 entering the third period.
The Dawgs killed off a penalty that carried over from the second period, then quickly earned their own power play. Right off the draw to start the man advantage, Nenadal tapped it back to Martin, Martin shot, and Nenadal deflected it in to give the Dawgs a 2-1 lead at 1:59. An incredible individual effort by Jacob Barber ended with a snipe in the Dawgs cage to tie the score at 8:47. Barber struck again with another incredible shot at 16:43, putting Huntsville ahead 3-2. The Dawgs emptied the net late, and Barber completed his hat trick for the Havoc’s fourth goal, while Nutkevich capped the score with another empty-netter to make it 5-2.
Austyn Roudebush stopped 23-of-26 shots in the net for Roanoke, while Nick Latinovich made 22 stops on 24 shots faced for Huntsville. Roanoke was 2-for-5 on the power play, while the Havoc went 1-for-5.
Roanoke will stay home to host the Macon Mayhem on Friday, January 6 at 7:05 p.m. at Berglund 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.