ROANOKE, VA. – The Rail Yard Dawgs (5-4-1) just couldn’t capitalize on their chances, falling 2-1 to the Knoxville Ice Bears (6-4-1) on Thursday night at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum. Tommy Munichiello had the lone goal for Roanoke, as Knoxville’s Stephen Mundinger stopped 44-of-45 shots faced in the victory.
It was an up-and-down game with both teams thriving in transition in the opening 20 minutes. Neither team was able to slow down the other in the neutral zone, as the Dawgs had 17 shots on net and the Ice Bears registered 14 of their own. On Knoxville’s second power play of the period, Daryk Dubé-Plouffe sniped a shot from the right-wing circle to give the Ice Bears a 1-0 lead at 17:47. That score would hold into the first intermission.
The Dawgs took control of the game in the second period, holding the Ice Bears to just two shots in the first 18 minutes of the frame and holding a 13-2 advantage in that department. A shot from the right-wing wall by Valerian was saved, but the loose puck was slapped home for Munichiello’s rebound goal at 3:57 to tie the game at 1-1. The Dawgs had a power play chance, but failed to capitalize late in the frame. That gave the Ice Bears momentum, and Knoxville took advantage of a turnover at the Roanoke blue line to spring a 3-on-1 odd-man rush. Brayden Stannard easily teed up Brendan Dowler’s first goal of the year to push Knoxville back ahead 2-1 at the 18:27 mark. The Dawgs trailed by one heading to the final frame.
Both teams had plenty of chances throughout the final period of regulation, including one sequence in which the Dawgs seemingly had seven-to-eight shots on goal within one minute around the halfway mark in the period. Nick Ford was called for tripping around the 12:30 mark or so and the Ice Bears had a delayed power play, but the whistle was blown before Roanoke touched the puck at 13:16 because of a crack in the glass panes by the Roanoke bench, which led to roughly a 10-minute stoppage to replace the glass. The Dawgs would kill off the penalty, and ended up emptying their net for the extra attacker with two minutes remaining. Roanoke had a ton of great looks in the final 30 seconds, but couldn’t find the tying goal as the team’s four-game winning streak came to a halt.
Tyler Roy saved 26-of-28 shots faced in net for Roanoke. Knoxville went 1-for-4 on the power play, while Roanoke went 0-for-1 on its chances.
The Rail Yard Dawgs will stay on the road on Friday, November 22 against the Huntsville Havoc at the Von Braun Center. Puck drop is scheduled for 8:00 P.M. EST in Alabama. Single game tickets for the season are on sale now online and at Berglund Center box office.
Photo Credit: Stephen Blue