Make hay while the sun is shining.
The Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs will be looking to take advantage of their recent sunny play as the team enters a key holiday home stretch of games at the Berglund Center.
Winners of their last eight straight, the Dawgs have the opportunity to jump past current-first place Peoria into the top spot of the SPHL standings. Peoria has a slim 2-point lead in the standings over the Dawgs (30-28 points), with both the Knoxville Ice Bears and the Evansville Thunderbolts right behind with 26 points each. A logjam ensues for fifth through ninth place with Birmingham (23 points), Quad City and Huntsville (21 each) , plus Pensacola and the Fayetteville Marksmen (20 each) right behind.
Roanoke gutted out a tough 6-5 road win over Knoxville Wednesday night that saw six different Dawgs, Travis Broughman, Dom Marcinkevics, Josh Nenadal, Billy Vizzo, Dillion Radin and C.J. Valerian, find the twine. Goalie Austyn Roudebush stood tall in the pipes to get the win. The eighth-straight win tied its franchise record for longest winning streak going back to February 3-23, 2018.
Roanoke now plays six of its next seven at the Berglund Center starting with Fayetteville visiting the Berglund pond on Friday, December 23. After a road contest at Fayetteville next Tuesday, the Dawgs play three in three nights at home with the Quad City Storm providing the opposition on Thursday-Friday, December 29-30, followed by a New Year’s Eve battle with the Huntsville Havoc.
Roanoke finishes the home stand Friday-Saturday January 6-7 when the last-place Macon Mayhem play a pair on successive nights. All games start with a 7:05 puck drop except a 6:05 start on New Year’s Eve.
- Bill Turner
