ROANOKE, Va. – The Rail Yard Dawgs played stifling defense and capitalized on special teams in a 4-0 shutout win over the Fayetteville Marksmen on Opening Night at Berglund Center. Austyn Roudebush posted a 27-save shutout, while Jacob Kelly, CJ Stubbs, Stephen Alvo, and Josh Nenadal all scored for Roanoke.
The Dawgs had the tone set early by Steven Leonard, who dropped the gloves and pummeled Anthony Yurkins just two minutes into the action. Roanoke collected two power plays in the opening frame, and it found paydirt on the second. A great circle-to-circle pass by Dominiks Marcinkevics found Kelly, who sniped the puck into the net for the game’s opening goal at the 14:55 mark. The Dawgs carried that one-goal cushion into the first intermission.
Fayetteville bounced back early in the middle frame, registering the first four shots on net in the period before another penalty gave Roanoke its third power play chance. Stubbs made no mistake on a one-time laser off of the feed of Nick Ford, giving the Dawgs a 2-0 advantage at the 5:37 mark. Both teams came up empty on respective power play chances later in the period, and Roudebush made a few timely saves to keep the Dawgs up by a pair heading into the final period.
Roanoke continued to clamp the Marksmen offense in the third period, making timely plays despite being outshot 12-6 in the frame. With just under four minutes left, Alvo poked a puck out of traffic in his own zone, skated the length of the ice, and flipped the puck over Fayetteville’s Matthew Herringer for additional insurance. A late Marksmen turnover had Nenadal licking his chops at the Fayetteville blue line, and he collected the puck and unleashed a slap shot for the game’s final goal at 18:04, as Roanoke closed its banner raising night in fashion.
Fayetteville’s Herringer saved 17-of-21 shots before being relieved for the final 116 seconds, as Troy Kobryn made one lone save in relief. The Dawgs were 2-for-4 on the power play, while the Marksmen went 0-for-2.
The Rail Yard Dawgs will travel to Fayetteville tomorrow night to play the second half of a home-and-home to open the season.