For immediate release

For more information, contact: Joel Silverberg, Director of Broadcasting (865) 525-7825,  joel@knoxvilleicebears.com.

Knoxville surrendered five goals in the first period and never recovered as the Ice Bears fell to Fayetteville 9-1 at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum Friday night.

The Ice Bears have lost four straight — all at home. Fayetteville is 3-0-1 in its last four.

A five-minute boarding major against Dawson McKinney gave Fayetteville an extended power play. Cameron Cook scored on the man advantage at 9:21 and Connor Fries tapped in a rebound a little over a minute later to open up a 2-0 lead midway through the first.

As the penalty expired, Dawson McKinney received a high pass in the neutral zone as he was coming out of the box. He handed the puck off the Justin Levac, who skated into the zone and slipped the rubber to Brendan Dowler in the right circle. Dowler’s wrist shot got underneath Ryan Kenny for his second of the year at 12:15.

Knoxville had several chances in the next few moments to tie the game, but Kirill Nizhnikov’s pass on a three-on-one was blocked in the slot, Seth Ensor missed a wrist shot from the left side and Dowler’s slap shot from the right circle was blocked by Kenny. Brady Fleurent had a breakaway chance that Kenny managed to turn aside before the rebound was cleared by Fayetteville.

Tim Faulkner, Kyle Soper and Simon Boyko all scored within a span of two and a half minutes to close out the first period with a 5-1 lead.

Boyko added his second of the night on the power play at 1:19 of the second. The goal ended Cody Karpinski’s night with 21 saves.

Roman Kraemer scored on a breakaway after Knoxville was fought flat-footed on a line change. Kraemer skated in unobstructed and slipped a backhand past Troy Kobryn to make it 7-1 at 15:50. Matt Arujo beat Kobryn five-hole with less than a minute before the break.

Grant Loven scored the only goal of the third period to wrap up the scoring detail. Kobryn finished with 20 saves. Kenny made 29 stops for Fayetteville.

The two teams head back to North Carolina to finish the back-end of the home-and-home.

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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