PEORIA, IL. – The Rail Yard Dawgs dug an early hole for themselves and never recovered, losing 7-3 to the Peoria Rivermen in Game Two of the President’s Cup Final on Friday night. Nick Ford, Brady Heppner, and Travis Broughman scored for Roanoke, and Peoria leads the best-of-five series 2-0.
The Dawgs allowed three rebound goals within five minutes from the 2:30 mark to 7:20, with Jordan Ernst, Alec Baer, and Kasey Kulczyzki scoring the goals for the Rivermen. That chased Sammy Bernard from the Roanoke net for Austyn Roudebush. Ford sniped a power play goal at 8:31 to bring the score to 3-1, but then Peoria rattled off another two-goal sequence with Ernst and Marcel Godbout scoring 36 seconds apart. Roanoke trailed 5-1 at the first intermission.
Play evened up in the second period, but it was Peoria who extended its lead at 10:12 on an Alec Hagaman blast from the right wing circle. The Dawgs notched their second power play goal of the night when Heppner snapped home his own rebound to make it 6-2 at 12:29. The second period would end with the Dawgs trailing by four goals.
Roanoke asked plenty of questions of Jack Berry in the third period, but it was too little too late. Broughman finally pulled another goal back for the Dawgs on a rebound score at 16:54 to make it 6-3. Peoria added on one more goal on a power play breakout for Ernst, who tallied a hat trick in Peoria’s Game Two victory.
Roanoke’s Sammy Bernard stopped 2-of-5 shots, and Austyn Roudebush saved 19-of-23 in relief. Berry made 25 saves on 28 shots faced. Both teams went 2-for-6 on the power play.
The Rail Yard Dawgs will host Game Three of the President’s Cup Final on Monday, May 2 at Berglund Center at 7:05 p.m. EST. Tickets for Monday’s game are available now online and at the Berglund Center box office, and you can watch the games on the Haley Toyota Rail Yard Dawgs Hockey Network on HockeyTV or listen via Mixlr. The 2022 President’s Cup Playoff run for the Dawgs is sponsored by Haley Toyota.
Photo Credit: Tim Lester Images // Field Pass Hockey