PEORIA, IL. – The Rail Yard Dawgs trailed for all but eight seconds in an 8-2 loss to the Peoria Rivermen at Carver Arena on Sunday afternoon. After setting an SPHL season-high 160 combined penalty minutes on Friday night, the two sides combined for 168 on Sunday. Jordan Fogarty and Gehrett Sargis scored for Roanoke.
Peoria struck off the opening faceoff, as a Dawgs turnover was potted into the back of the net just eight seconds into the game. After a fight between J.M. Piotrowski and Josh Nenadal and another pair of offsetting penalties, Marcel Godbout scored in 4-on-4 action at the 58 second mark to make it 2-0. Another goal by Godbout at 3:14 prompted Roanoke head coach Dan Bremner to call a timeout. That helped the Dawgs, who scored right off the faceoff as Chad Lopez found Fogarty for his first goal for Roanoke at the 3:30 mark. Roanoke played well for the next six-to-seven minutes, then conceded a shorthanded breakaway goal to Mitch McPherson to go down 4-1. A power play goal by McPherson following a boarding major/game misconduct against Matt O’Dea made it 5-1 Rivermen at the first intermission.
The five-minute major carried into the second period, and Godbout completed his hat trick at 1:23 to make it 6-1 Peoria. A power play goal by Sargis in his Dawgs debut made it 6-2 with 16:20 left in the period. The Rivermen scored the only other goal in the period on a power play blast by Zach Wilkie, and the Dawgs trailed 7-2 entering the final period.
The third period was extremely chippy, with both teams combining for 93 penalty minutes in that frame alone. Peoria’s Alec Hagaman started a melee with 5:43 remaining, which sent three Rivermen to the locker room early as well as two Dawgs. Just over a minute later, another skirmish between Roanoke’s Jeff Jones and Travis Armstrong with Peoria’s Dale Deon and Mitch McPherson further complicated the conclusion of the game. A shorthanded goal with 39 seconds left by Larry Jungwirth capped the scoring for Peoria in an 8-2 win over the Dawgs.
Roanoke’s Mac Berglove stopped 22-of-30 shots that he faced in his pro debut, while Peoria’s Eric Levine saved 19-of-21 shots. Roanoke went 1-for-7 on the power play, while Peoria went 3-for-8.
The Rail Yard Dawgs will head south to face the Birmingham Bulls on Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. EST. Wisler Plumbing and Air Family Four Packs, group tickets, 2022-2023 season tickets, and single game tickets for home games are on sale now, and you can listen to the games on the Haley Toyota Rail Yard Dawgs Hockey Network via Mixlr or watch it on HockeyTV.
Photo Credit: Mark Sawyer