Rail Yard Dawgs Take Home Opener 4-3 In OT Over Ice Bears

Roanoke’s Dillan Fox scored late in overtime Saturday night to give the Rail Yard Dawgs the 4-3 win in their home opener at the Berglund Center.

It played out like the perfect Broadway production.

Bad guys get the upper hand, good guys make a comeback.

Throw in a raucous audience, an overtime winner and a glove-dropping slugfest along the way, and you’ve got the stage Saturday night at the Berglund Center as the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs came from 2 goals down to pull out the 4-3 overtime winner against the Knoxville Ice Bears in the Dawgs season home opener.

An announced crowd of 4,351 poured into the Dawgs barn eager to see the third version of a team that made the playoffs for the first time last year and are looking for much bigger things this time around in the first full season under head coach Dan Bremner.

Roanoke trailed 3-1 in the second period before Roanoke pulled even with a pair of goals, the first on the power play with 5:57 left when Steve Mele redirected a Cody Dion slapper past Ice Bear goalie Michael Santaguida that cut the Dawg deficit to 3-2. Just over four minutes later Ben Bauer slammed home a loose puck for the 3-3 equalizer that sent the Berglund crowd into mayhem-mode.

Although neither team scored in the tense third period despite Roanoke having several great opportunities including a power play with under 4 minutes left, the Dawgs got the game to OT where Dillan Fox scored the game-winner off a Maxime Guyon feed with 1:38 left on a nifty backhand-forehand  move that beat Santaguida.

That left the Dawg faithful roaring, even 7-year old Troy Willoughby, who admittedly didn’t know all the rules of ice hockey, but had the most important question.

“My first game and this is really cool…..when’s the next game?”

Knoxville had opened the scoring in the first period on a Lucas Bombardier power play tally that Roanoke answered on a Fox goal 1:12 later. But, Knoxville went up 2-1 when Brandon McMartin fired a slapper past Roanoke goalie Brad Barone with 8:23 left in the opening frame and the Ice Bears increased their lead to 3-1 on a Marcus Ortiz power play score at the 12:08 mark of the second period.

“Great game, an overtime win and over 4.300 fans,” Roanoke ice hockey legend Claude Piche noted afterward. “Things are looking good for Roanoke hockey.”

The Dawgs return to action this Friday night when the Fayetteville Marksmen make the trip to the Berglund Center where Roanoke will be looking for paybacks from the 2-1 loss they absorbed in North Carolina last Friday night.

Bill Turner

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