Roanoke Can’t Overcome Peoria Lose 4-3 (2-1-24)
By: Joey Raymond
All Photo Credit: Katie Lovell-LMS Network
Roanoke, VA —It’s another Thursday night matchup for the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs. This time, however, it’ll be against the Peoria Rivermen. A team that has gone back and forth with the Dawgs in both the regular season and the playoffs. Roanoke has had an insane amount of turnover in players in just the last couple of days before this game. They managed to sign 3 players in the midst of losing 3, all in as many days. Not to mention the fact that the Dawgs also are dealing with the injury bug amongst the team, they’re practically playing with a new team. Peoria is sitting atop the Dawgs by 2 points in the standings. That means that a win for the Dawgs would put them tied for third place. Peoria is looking to not allow that to happen.
First Period Recap:
Roanoke and Peoria are ready to do battle in this heavyweight fight between two of the top SPHL teams. The game starts with an incredible pace, as both teams race back and forth down the ice as both teams are getting a feel for each other. Roanoke would commit the first penalty 3 minutes in, getting to spend 2 minutes in the box for roughing. Roanoke kills the penalty in large part thanks to one of the newcomers in Hunter Hall. 7 minutes into the period, Roanoke’s Matt O’Dea would fire a shot that found the back of the net to give the Dawgs a 1-0 lead. With 9 minutes left to go, Peoria would find themselves in the box thanks to a tripping call. Down a man wouldn’t matter for the Rivermen though, as they get a deflection that finds its way past Austin Roudebush to tie the game up at 1-1. Peoria would continue the onslaught, as off of a faceoff thanks to icing, they would score again on the shorthand, taking a 1-2 lead. The Rivermen would then also kill the penalty, absolutely sucking the air out of the Dawg house. Peoria would take another seat in the penalty box, only a couple of minutes after getting back to full strength. Roanoke would again struggle on the power play, not producing anything from it. The rest of the period would be quiet, relatively speaking, but the clock would hit all zeros with Peoria leading 1-2.
Second Period Recap:
Out of the gate, both of these teams look like they’re trying to be the aggressor. For the first several minutes, both squads quickly fly down the ice back and forth taking shot after shot at each other’s nets. As these two teams trade body blows, the restlessness in the arena is palpable. Body blow after body blow, eventually one of the teams’ defenses would have to crack. It just so happens that’d be Roanoke’s. Peoria would fire a shot that would deflect off the crossbar and into the back of the net to stretch the lead to 1-3. With 7 minutes left, the Dawgs would get called for an elbowing penalty, sending Peoria on the power play. Roanoke would manage to kill the penalty with relative ease this go around. Down to just over a minute left in the period and the Dawgs would sit in the penalty box again. The period would finish before the power play would end. The period would end with the Rivermen leading to 1-3.
Third Period Recap:
Only 20 seconds would pass before the Dawgs would come out swinging. They’d fire a shot underneath the goalkeeper’s glove side, to give them a short-handed goal. That would bring the score to 2-3. As soon as the last couple seconds of the power play went by and the Dawgs had successfully killed the Peoria powerplay, Roanoke would score again. That would tie the game up at 3 goals a piece. With a fresh game left to play with 18 minutes left in the period. It would take approximately 3 minutes for Peoria to formulate a response. Jordan Ernst would find the back of the net for Peoria, giving them a 3-4 lead. Peoria would remain with the lead for several minutes. With roughly 1:30 left on the clock, Roanoke would pull their goalkeeper in hopes of gaining an advantage. Unfortunately for Roanoke, they would not be lucky enough to score, and the game would end with the Rivermen winning 3-4.
Final Thoughts
As I’m sure most Dawgs fans will agree, Roanoke lost the game on the simple fact that they gave up two short-handed goals. To make matters worse they let the Rivermen score twice on the same power play. You simply can’t do that if you want to win games. The other big thing is that you could tell Roanoke is not on the same wavelength. They couldn’t control the puck and didn’t anticipate their teammates’ movements like they normally do. This team is not the same team they were to start the season and this game showcased that. Lastly, for Roanoke, they need to rest Austin Roudebush. His workload is extremely heavy and he looked tired and beaten in this game. I think for the Dawgs to be successful going forward they’re going to need to give him some rest days. On the Peoria side, just keep on trucking. With this game, they showed why they’re one of the top teams in the league. They continued dominating on the power play, scoring twice short-handed. They currently lead the league in short-handed goals. If they can keep the momentum up, they’ll be a tough team to play in the playoffs.
