A six-game point streak and five-game home winning streak were both halted on Friday night, as the Rail Yard Dawgs fell 5-1 to the Peoria Rivermen at Berglund Center.
CJ Stubbs scored Roanoke’s only goal, assisted by Matt O’Dea and Brant Sherwood. Henry Dill made 11 saves on 12 shots faced in relief of Austyn Roudebush, who was pulled after saving six of the 10 shot attempts that he faced.
The first period started poorly for Roanoke, as a Mitch McPherson redirect off of a blue-line blast by Zach Wilkie gave Peoria a lead at 1:48. The Rivermen doubled their advantage when Alec Baer scored on a rebound from another Wilkie shot at 9:50. Just over a minute later, Stubbs potted Roanoke’s lone goal of the night along the bottom of the left wing circle following a feed from the slot by O’Dea. The Dawgs trailed 2-1 at the first intermission.
The second period saw Roanoke have a couple chances to tie the score early, most notably a rip by Josh Nenadal that bounced off of Peoria’s Eric Levine, landed right in the painted crease, and was barely cleared before Nenadal could lay out to try and slip it over the goal line. At 7:27 in the period, Alec Hagaman wrestled away a loose puck following a faceoff in the Roanoke zone and slipped it by Roudebush to make it 3-1. A power play snipe by Marcel Godbout just seven seconds into the penalty prompted the Roanoke goalie change, and made the score 4-1. Sherwood, Francesco Corona, Hagaman, and Travis Armstrong mixed it up late in the period, and all received a fighting major penalty at the minimum. Roanoke trailed by three entering the final period.
The third period was tough for Roanoke, as they faced a five-on-three penalty kill after O’Dea was given a game misconduct for instigating a fight with J.M. Pietrowski after he ran over Dill, and Nenadal committed an interference minor penalty on a big hit. The Dawgs killed off that penalty, and even had power play chances of their own, but it was Peoria’s Baer who scored the last tally for either team in the contest, handing Roanoke it’s most lopsided defeat of the season to date.
Roanoke went 0-for-5 on the power play, while Peoria went 1-for-4 on the man advantage. Levine saved 24 of Roanoke’s 25 shots in the game.
The Dawgs are back at home tomorrow night against the Peoria Rivermen. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. at Berglund Center. Wisler Plumbing and Air Family Four Packs, group 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.