ROANOKE, Va. – The Rail Yard Dawgs came alive in the second period on Friday night, rattling off three unanswered goals en route to a 4-2 Opening Night win over the Fayetteville Marksmen at Berglund Center. Mac Jansen, Nick DeVito, Josh Nenadal, and Travis Broughman scored for Roanoke.
The Dawgs had two early power plays and an eight-to-three shots on goal advantage in the first stanza, but couldn’t find the back of the net. The Marksmen scored the only goal of the period via an Andrew Lane rebound finish at 12:38 to take a 1-0 lead into the intermission.
Roanoke roared to life in period two, with a Jansen snipe tying the score at one-all at 3:58. A DeVito tip on a shot by Sean Leonard gave him a power play tally to give the Dawgs a 2-1 lead at 8:28. Nenadal’s wicked wrister at 17:42 doubled the advantage, and Roanoke took a 3-1 lead into the final intermission.
Fayetteville pulled the score within one goal thanks to Taylor McCloy’s tally at 10:18, but a sweet score by Broughman sealed the deal for the Dirty Dawgs. Nick Ford and Brady Heppner each recorded two assists on the night for the hosts.
Roanoke’s Brody Claeys stopped 20-of-22 shots, while Jason Pawloski made 33 saves on 37 shots faced. The Dawgs were 1-for-3 on the power play, while the Marksmen went 0-for-3.