ROANOKE, Va. – The Rail Yard Dawgs gave people in Roanoke an ‘underdawg’ to believe in this postseason, but were eliminated 3-2 in overtime by the Peoria Rivermen in Game Four on Thursday night. Mac Jansen and Travis Broughman scored for Roanoke, and Peoria won its first President’s Cup in its fourth appearance in the championship series.
“I hate consolation prizes but there’s a lot for this group to be proud of,” said head coach Dan Bremner. “They really should be proud of themselves. For one, we weren’t an 8 seed. It was a year of whatever but we did overcome a lot and set some records and you could see the passion of hockey in Roanoke through this team and to make the steps they did to make it to the Finals, I’m proud of all of them.”
The Dawgs took an early lead, as Jansen blasted a circle-to-circle pass by Nick Ford into the net at 2:19 to make it 1-0 Roanoke. That lead held into the first intermission, after the Dawgs kept the Rivermen without a shot on goal for nearly the first 12 minutes of the game.
Roanoke picked up where it left off in the second period, as Broughman tipped a pass by Jansen near the Peoria net to light the lamp on the power play and give the Dawgs a 2-0 lead at 1:56. A tip-goal by Peoria made it 2-1, as Mike Laidley helped along a shot by Nick Neville. Roanoke killed off consecutive 5-on-3 penalties, and entered the third period with a 2-1 lead.
Both teams had chances to grab the all important first goal of the third period, but the season boiled down to one power play per team. Peoria’s power play goal by Marcel Godbout at 12:23 tied the game at 2-2, and a Roanoke power play with less than six minutes to play failed to score.
Despite a 33-to-24 shots on goal advantage, the Dawgs and Peoria would need overtime in Game Four.
On Peoria’s first shot of the period, J.M. Piotrowski tipped a long-range shot into the Roanoke net at 1:06 in the first overtime period to capture the President’s Cup for Peoria. Rivermen goaltender Jack Berry was named the Most Valuable Player of the President’s Cup Final.
Roanoke’s Sammy Bernard stopped 22-of-25 shots, while Berry made 31 saves on 33 shots faced. The Dawgs were 1-for-6 on the power play, while the Rivermen went 1-for-5.