Roanoke, Va. – The Rail Yard Dawgs (12-7-3) blew past the Huntsville Havoc (11-10-4) on Saturday night, rolling to a 6-2 win at Berglund Center. A four-point hat trick by Owen McDade led the way for the Dawgs, while Alex DiCarlo, Josh Nenadal, and CJ Stubbs also scored for the Dawgs. Dominiks Marcinkevics added three assists as well, with Nick Ford tallying two of his own.
Huntsville started quick, scoring on the game’s first shot on goal at 1:40 after Doug Elgstam picked off a Roanoke pass and scored on the ensuing breakaway. The Dawgs answered quickly themselves, as a shot by Stubbs created a rebound that fell to DiCarlo to tie the game at 1-1 at 3:50. The Dawgs took the lead a few minutes later, when McDade collected a missed shot by Marcinkevics off the back wall and slid it inside the right goalpost to make it 2-1 at the 6:28 mark. A delay of game penalty put Roanoke on the penalty kill, but the hosts killed off the Huntsville power play and led by a goal at the first intermission.
The second period saw Roanoke seize the momentum. Nenadal smashed in a puck that was loose in the low slot thanks to the pressure of McDade and Marcinkevics to give the Dawgs a two-goal lead at 2:33. A beautifully worked transition goal that went from behind the Roanoke net to the Huntsville zone was sniped into the net by Stubbs at 7:52, making it 4-1 for the Dawgs. Huntsville went nearly nine minutes without a shot on goal at one point, but a late surge in the final two or three minutes of the period enabled the Havoc to pull one back. Matt Doran lasered the puck from the Roanoke blue line after an offensive zone faceoff win to make the score 4-2 at 18:15. The Dawgs carried the two-goal cushion into the final break.
It became the Owen McDade show in the third period. After Matt O’Dea carried the puck all the way from behind the Roanoke net up into the Huntsville zone, his pass to McDade was carried across the low slot for a backhanded tuck by the center at 1:47 to make it 5-2. Just three minutes later, Xavier Filion handed off the puck to McDade while driving through the slot towards the Huntsville net, and McDade slid it just inside the right goalpost to give Roanoke a 6-2 lead. The defense clamped down for the Dawgs as the game came to the finish line, and Roanoke tallied its first win in four tries against Huntsville this season.
Austyn Roudebush made 23 saves on 25 shots faced for Roanoke, while Huntsville’s Brian Wilson stopped 32-of-38 shots faced. Roanoke was 0-for-2 on the power play, while Huntsville went 0-for-3.
The Rail Yard Dawgs will stay home tomorrow night, December 31, to take on the Knoxville Ice Bears. Puck drop is slated for 6:05 P.M. EST at Berglund Center.