FAYETTEVILLE, NC. – The Rail Yard Dawgs rattled off five unanswered goals in the final 32 minutes of the game to turn a two-goal deficit into a 5-2 victory over the Fayetteville Marksmen at Crown Coliseum.
Mac Jansen scored a hat trick for Roanoke, the second for the Dawgs in the past two weeks, and Matt O’Dea and CJ Stubbs added goals as well.
Roanoke started off slow in the first period, yielding three penalties to the Marksmen. Taylor Best got Fayetteville on the board with a goal at the 10:21 mark of the first period, and followed it with a power play goal with 17 seconds remaining in the opening period. The Dawgs entered the first intermission trailing 2-0, despite a solid period from goaltender Brody Claeys.
The second period was dominated by Roanoke. Despite a second penalty committed by Dillon Hill just 28 seconds after the Dawgs had killed off a Fayetteville power play, Matt O’Dea juked out a Marksmen defenseman and slipped a shot by Fayetteville’s Jason Pawloski to notch a shorthanded goal for Roanoke. Just over a minute later at full strength, Hill found Jansen streaking into the Fayetteville zone, and he launched a shot by Pawloski to tie the stunned Marksmen at 2-all. At 15:41 in the second period, Jansen scored again, this time banging a power play goal in from the left wing assisted by Travis Armstrong and Jeff Jones. Stubbs finished off the scoring by rattling a feed by Jansen into the Fayetteville cage with just 13 seconds left in the period, capping off a four goal period by the Dawgs.
The third period saw the Dawgs continue their remarkable defense, as Roanoke allowed just four shots in the second period and three attempts in the final period after allowing 11 in the first period alone. Fayetteville pulled Pawloski in favor of Stefano Durante, and Vincenzo Renda even started a fight with Chris Vella to try and switch the momentum for Fayetteville, but it was Roanoke who iced the game in the final minute. Jansen fired in his third goal of the night in the slot, assisted by O’Dea and Jones.
Claeys made 16 saves on 18 shots faced for the Dawgs. Pawloski stopped 16-of-20 shots that he encountered, while Durante saved 9-of-10. The Dawgs went 2-for-3 on the power play, and killed off five of six penalties in the game.
Roanoke will host Fayetteville at Berglund Center on Friday night. That game will be Roanoke Express Tribute Night sponsored by Carilion Clinic with Q99, and Roanoke will wear three different specialty jerseys in the game. Season tickets, Wisler Plumbing and Air Family Four Packs, group tickets, and single game tickets are on sale now for future home games, and you can listen to the game on the Haley Toyota Rail Yard Dawgs Hockey Network via Mixlr or watch it on HockeyTV.