For immediate release

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

Dominicks Marcinkevics scored twice and the Knoxville Ice Bears fell to the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs 4-1 at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum Friday night.

Knoxville has dropped three of its last four. Roanoke has points in four straight.

Marcinkevics put Roanoke ahead with a shorthanded goal from the left circle. Knoxville dumped the puck into the Roanoke zone where Brendan Pepe swept it off the right-wing wall to Marcinkevics in the neutral zone. Marcinkevics took the puck in transition, skated to the left circle and beat Riley Morris with a wrist shot at 11:00 of the first.

Knoxville evened the score while on the 5-on-3 early in the second period. The Ice Bears caught Roanoke’s penalty kill in a long change and Dawson McKinney fed the puck up the wing to Rex Moe, who handed it off to Justin Cmunt. Cmunt carried into the right circle, cut back towards the hash and slid the shot underneath Austyn Roudebush 44 seconds into the period.

Jacob Kelly pushed in a loose puck to give Roanoke the lead again at the tail end of a power play at 8:17. Marcinkevics scored his second of the night by banking the puck in off the far-side post less than a minute later to give the Rail Yard Dawgs a 3-1 edge.

The Ice Bears had a five-minute power play after Greg Smith was given a game misconduct for checking Kodi Schwarz from behind, but Knoxville managed just four shots on goal during the advantage and went to the break down by a pair.

Mac Jansen scored the only goal of the third with a minute and a half remaining from in front of the crease off a cross-ice pass from Alex DiCarlo. Morris made 33 saves for Knoxville. Roudebush stopped 18 shots for Roanoke.

The two teams will face off again on Saturday night to close out the weekend.

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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