ROANOKE, Va. – Knoxville coach Jeff Carr didn’t mince words when speaking on the Rail Yard Dawgs—calling them a dirty, undisciplined hockey team. But as the Dawgs enter the SPHL President’s Cup playoffs, they’re using that as motivation to play their physical style of hockey.
“I think our focus down the stretch has been discipline the whole way and we’ve shown that turn over the last month so he can worry about whatever he wants and we’ll worry about hockey,” said Rail Yard Dawgs head coach Dan Bremner.
Roanoke put heavy emphasis on the end of the regular the season, when they played the top three teams in the league going 3-3 including a win over the Ice Bears.
“I look at the last three weekends and I think our group has been making little steps towards playoff hockey there,” said Bremner.
“That’s been our mindset the entire season the way he preaches he wants us to finish hits and play hard down nose style of game,” said Travis Armstrong.
The margin for error very slim in the playoffs so Roanoke understands the importance of setting the tone early on Wednesday night.
“If you drop the first one you’re kind of in the hole for the next two games so getting that first win will be huge,” Armstrong said. But whatever happens, happens but we have to bring our best effort tomorrow night.”
“As much as it’s game one, it’s every shift, every battle, every race that we really preach of the importance,” said Bremner.
Game one in the best-of-3 series is in Knoxville Wednesday night, before playoff hockey returns to the Berglund Center for the first time in 3 years Saturday night.