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For more information, contact: Joel Silverberg, Director of Broadcasting (865) 525-7825, joel@knoxvilleicebears.com.
Roanoke scored four unanswered goals, including three on the power play and the Ice Bears had 86 penalty minutes in a 5-1 loss to the Rail Yard Dawgs at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum Sunday night.
Knoxville has lost nine straight games. Roanoke has won its last five.
Roanoke took the lead into the first intermission when Knoxville turned the puck over in the neutral zone. Brenden Stanko moved up the right wing and made a cross-ice pass to the left circle to Nick Ford. Ford snuck the backdoor feed to Mac Jansen, who redirected the puck behind Kristian Stead at 7:34.
Derek Osik tied the game for Knoxville with a wrist shot from the left circle halfway through the second. Davis Kirkendall muscled the puck into the zone and Justin Portillo won it off the right wall back to Kirkendall. Kirkendall skated to the slot and dished the puck to Osik, who was all alone in the circle before he beat Brody Claeys up high.
After back-to-back penalties on Rex Moe and Troy Murray, Roanoke capitalized on the 5-on-3 when a net-front scramble resulted in the puck coming free for Alex DiCarlo to move the puck to Xavier Filion in the left circle. Filion had an open net as Stead was still getting up after rolling over in the crease and Filion scored to make it 2-1 at 12:32 of the second.
Joshua Karlsson was given a game misconduct for verbal abuse of an official at the end of the period in addition to a two-minute minor for unsportsmanlike conduct. Roanoke scored on the ensuing power play to start the third with Ford’s wrist shot from the right circle. Ford scored again on special teams when Josh Nenadal found him by the right dot and Stead out of position for Ford to fire on an open net at 10:28.
Matt O’Dea blasted a wrist shot past Stead at 10:59 to cap off the scoring. Tempers then flared on the ensuing face-off with Justin Portillo of Knoxville and Roanoke’s Sean Leonard both being given game misconducts. Portillo was also given a match penalty for cross-checking. Later on in the period, Cole McKechney was given a match penalty for an illegal check to the head on Dominiks Marcinkevics as both were heading to the bench. Owen McDade left the bench and grabbed McKechney to the ground, resulting in both players being dismissed.
Four Knoxville players were tossed from the game in all. Stephen Alvo and head coach Dan Bremner were also ejected for Roanoke.
Stead made 29 saves in his first game since November. Claeys stopped 28-of-29 shots for the Rail Yard Dawgs in helping Roanoke kill off all seven Ice Bears power plays. Roanoke went 3-of-13 on the man advantage.
Knoxville hosts Evansville for a pair of games starting on Friday. Roanoke is at Pensacola Friday night.
ABOUT The Knoxville Ice Bears: The Knoxville Ice Bears organization began in 2002 and was an inaugural charter member of the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) in 2004. As four-time SPHL Champions and five-time regular season champions, the Ice Bears are an experienced and established organization, offering the city and its visitors a balanced product of highlight-reel hockey, unique and exciting intermission activity and endless fan interaction, presenting the most affordable, family-friendly way to enjoy sports and entertainment. Season, Partial Season and Flex Tickets are now on sale. For more information, visit www.knoxvilleicebears.com or call (865) 525-7825.
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