Fayetteville Puts Roanoke in the Dawg-house 5-2

Courtesy: Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs

ROANOKE, VA – The Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs scored twice to tie the game in the first period but allowed three unanswered goals and were defeated by the Fayetteville FireAntz, 5-2, Friday night at the Berglund Center.

Roanoke was forced to work out of an early 2-0 deficit as the FireAntz started fast in the first. Joe Kalisz took a pass to the left of James Kruger's crease and lifted a backhander over his glove to open the scoring.

Later, Kalisz controlled the puck on the attack and circled behind Kruger's net. He slid a pass to Chris Porter who tapped it in to extend the lead to 2-0.

The Dawgs would bounce back just 33 seconds later while working on the power play. Nick Schneider cranked a slap shot from the point that navigated through traffic in front of the net and snuck past Sean Bonar to make it 2-1.

Nearly two minutes later, Massimo Lamacchia saucered a pass to a waiting Dmytro Babenko in the slot. He chipped the puck over Bonar's glove and the game was tied at two.

The game would stay tied for only five seconds however as the FireAntz won the ensuing faceoff and Christian Horn charged down the right wing. He slid a pass to Chase Nieuwendyk who tucked it inside the left post, putting the FireAntz ahead for good.

Fayetteville would later add a pair of goals as Joe Harcharick beat Kruger on a rebound in the second and Jake Hauswirth wristed a shot from the left faceoff circle to extend the Fayetteville advantage to 5-2 in the third.

Lamacchia finished with a pair of assists, his fourth multi-point game of the season. Kalisz and Hauswirth each had a goal and an assist for Fayetteville. Kruger was the losing goaltender after stopping 35 of the 40 shots that he faced.

The Rail Yard Dawgs fell to 6-12-4 with the loss while the FireAntz improved to 12-9-1. Roanoke will return to the ice on Saturday night against the Huntsville Havoc. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:05 PM at the Berglund Center.