FAYETTEVILLE, NC. – The Rail Yard Dawgs led for most of the game on Friday night, but fell 5-4 to Fayetteville in overtime at Crown Coliseum. Nick Ford, Nick DeVito, Gehrett Sargis, and Brady Heppner scored for Roanoke.
The Dawgs came out strong in the first period, and a rebound goal by Ford off of a shot by CJ Stubbs gave Roanoke the lead at 10:43. 50 seconds later, Josh Nenadal found a streaking DeVito to make it 2-0 in favor of the Dawgs. That score held into the first intermission.
The second period was back-and-forth, with Roanoke answering Fayetteville’s attempts to close the scoring gap. Mark Wilson’s first pro goal on a weird mishap made it 2-1 at 0:52, but Sargis snapped a loose puck into the net at 5:32 to put Roanoke back in front 3-1. Taylor Best quickly made it 3-2 just 82 seconds later, but Heppner was fed by Nenadal just 45 seconds after that to put the Dawgs in front 4-2. Roanoke’s two-goal cushion prevailed into the third period.
The final frame came down to Roanoke’s inability to find a fifth goal and seal the victory. The Marksmen turned two quick breakouts into two goals within 80 seconds of each other, and a 4-2 Roanoke lead with eight minutes remaining was made a 4-4 tie game with just over six minutes left in regulation. A few chances to grab the winner by Roanoke went wide in both the third period and overtime, and Don Olivieri gave the Marksmen both points with 26.4 seconds to go in the extra period.
Austyn Roudebush saved 27-of-32 shots for Roanoke, while Fayetteville’s Brent Moran stopped 28-of-32 in net. The Marksmen went 0-for-4 on the power play, while the Dawgs went 0-for-1 on their man advantages.
The Rail Yard Dawgs are on the road tomorrow night for their regular season finale against the Fayetteville Marksmen at 6:00 p.m. EST. Single game tickets for next Saturday’s Game Two matchup against the Knoxville Ice Bears are on sale starting at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning both online and at Berglund Center box office, and you can listen to the games on the Haley Toyota Rail Yard Dawgs Hockey Network via Mixlr or watch it on HockeyTV.