ROANOKE, VA. – The Rail Yard Dawgs (4-3-1) rolled offensively over the Quad City Storm (4-4-0) on Friday night, firing on all cylinders during a 6-3 victory at Berglund Center. Nick Ford had two goals and two assists, Joe Widmar had one goal and two assists in his Dawgs debut, and Tommy Munichiello, Gustav Müller, and Mac Jansen added goals for Roanoke.
Roanoke stormed out of the gate in the first period, registering seven of the game’s first eight shots on net and quickly taking the lead before the first media timeout. A beautiful feed below the left-wing goalline by Stephen Alvo found Ford at the goalpost for an easy tap-in at 4:59. The Dawgs would double the advantage at the 12:00 mark, as a faceoff win by Widmar went to Ford, and Ford teed up a mid-slot missile by Widmar to make it 2-0. The Storm would get on the board just 49 seconds later on an awkward, in-between puck that forced Roanoke’s Austyn Roudebush out of his net. He lost the 50-50 race with Quad City’s Cole Golka, who rounded the Roanoke goalie and finished on an empty net at 12:49. The Dawgs would take a one-goal lead into the intermission.
The second period was all over the place – beginning with an early power play chance for the Dawgs. Jacob Kelly centered the puck from the left wing to the middle of the Quad City zone, and Munichiello picked his spot on a beautiful shot at 3:13 that made it a 3-1 game. The Storm would answer, as a 4-on-3 odd-man rush allowed Johnny Witzke to tap in for an easy finish at 8:52. Quad City tied the game less than 100 seconds later when Thomas McGuire found Tommy Tsicos on another net-mouth feed to make it 3-3 at 10:29. It was Roanoke’s turn next, as an incredible splitting pass by Ford sprung Billy Roche, and Roche centered it to the one-time finish by Müller in the low slot at 11:36. Later in the period, Jansen would roof the puck from the left-wing dot to make it a 5-3 game at 18:05. Just 16 seconds later, Widmar played the puck from the trapezoid to the bottom of the right-wing circle to enable Ford’s second tidy finish of the game. The Dawgs led 6-3 at the end of 40 minutes.
Jansen was in a fight early in the third period against Nick Pennucci of Quad City, but otherwise, there weren’t a ton of chances in the final frame. The Storm had two power play chances and Roanoke had one, but the two teams combined for just 11 shots on goal and zero scores after combining for nine goals in the first two periods. Roanoke took down its third consecutive win, and jumped Quad City in the league standings with the result.
Roudebush saved 20-of-23 shots faced in net for Roanoke, and Tyson Brouwer turned away 16-of-22 shots in the crease for the Storm before he was relieved by Roni Salmenkengas to start the third period, and the backup goalie stopped all four shots that he saw. Quad City went 0-for-2 on the power play, while Roanoke went 1-for-3 on its chances.
The Rail Yard Dawgs will stay at home on Saturday, November 16 against the Quad City Storm at Berglund Center. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:05 P.M. EST in the Star City. Single game tickets for the season are on sale now online and at Berglund Center box office.
Photo Credit: Keith Lucas