Roanoke Season Comes To An End, Huntsville Wins Series 2-1 (4-20-24)
By: Joey Raymond
All Photo Credit: Katie Lovell-LMS Network
Roanoke, VA —On an absolutely beautiful day in Roanoke, Virginia, the Berglund Center was filled with thousands of Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs fans. The Huntsville Havoc and the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs were set to battle it out for a trip to the SPHL finals to face the Peoria Rivermen. In a best-of-three series, this game was it, win or go home as they say. Unfortunately for the Dawgs, the incredible will to make a comeback that they have had all season, just wasn’t in the cards. The win sends the Havoc back to the President’s Cup Final for the first time since 2019, and Huntsville will face the second-seeded Peoria Rivermen in a best-of-three series.
Roanoke would strike first in the game, finding themselves on a breakaway chance in the Havoc zone at roughly the 6-minute mark in the first period. The goal would come off of an incredibly high IQ play from Dominicks Marcinkevics who would fire the puck and have it hit the post. He stayed with it and got his rebound chance, sliding it into the net, giving the Dawgs a 1-0 lead. However, the ever-pesky Havoc would continue to fight and crawl. They’d seemingly outplay Roanoke in every facet of the game before breaking through early into the second period. Benito Posa would score the goal on an odd man, 2 on 1 chance. The goal would tie the game at 1 goal a piece and once the Havoc grabbed momentum they never looked back.
With a struggle to communicate, finish passes, or control the puck at all Roanoke would make a plethora of mistakes. Those mistakes would allow Huntsville to score again with 12 minutes left to go in the third period. Dylan Stewart would find himself with an open look in the Dawgs’ end and not miss his shot. That goal would be Huntsville’s first lead of the night, bringing the score to 2-1. Roanoke would be forced to pull goalkeeper Austin Roudebush with just over 2 minutes left, giving them an extra man but leaving the net open. That move would go on to be a fatal move albeit a necessary one. With 1:06 left in the game, the puck in the Huntsville zone, the Dawgs would make that detrimental mistake. CJ Stubbs would lose control of the puck and Huntsville’s Brett Humberstone would launch the puck across the ice and into the Roanoke net. That would give the Havoc a 3-1 lead and seal the win.
After the game, the emotions were high in the Berglund Center. For the fans, the staff, and the players, it was not supposed to end like this. The team would stay on the ice after the game and give an extremely emotional goodbye to all the fans in attendance. All the fans that could have left when they knew the game was over, but didn’t. Head coach Dan Bremner carried so much expectation for this team, that it’s not hard to see why they were so special. “With this group… anything but repeat was a disappointment.” With the magical season that came with breaking attendance records and season point totals, it’s not hard to see why this team meant so much to people. When asked about what this team meant to him, team captain Mac Jansen responded with “Everything…everyone is battling for the guy on their left, it’s an honor to play with guys that share the same passion for the logo that I do.”
Roanoke has a lot of questions on the docket to be answered this offseason. The biggest questions revolve around whether or not the captain, Mac Jansen, and plenty of others, decide to hang it up. The roster is bound to look extremely different next year, but one bright side is all the young talent. As it currently stands the roster has 9 players 25 years or younger, 10 if you bump that number to 26. The Dawgs will be able to build around that core if they do decide it’s time for a rebuild. Not only that but with the sustained success he has had, I’m sure teams at higher levels have shown interest in Dan Bremner. There should be a lot of hope in the ‘Star City.’ Yes, it’ll be hard to see some of the veterans go, but it’s so hard to repeat in sports. Roanoke will reach the proverbial mountain top again because this organization is too well-run not to.
