ROANOKE, Va. – Dalton Hunter scored twice, but a combination of first and last-minute goals would be too much to overcome as the Fayetteville Marksmen fell 3-2 to the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs at the Berglund Center Friday.

Roanoke didn’t let the Thanksgiving food slow them down and took a 1-0 lead over Fayetteville just 49 seconds into the game off a defensive breakdown. The Marksmen corrected course and survived the period thanks to three consecutive penalty kills. Through 20 minutes, the two clubs were even in shots, but the visitors were gearing up for a big second period.

The Dawgs found themselves on the other end of penalty troubles to begin the middle frame, and Hunter (6) got Fayetteville on the board 1-1 with a powerplay goal from Sam Anzai (4) and Barrow (4) under two minutes in. Roanoke would go back to the box before too long, but succeeded in killing its third penalty, and jumped back into the lead with 6:02 left in the period to bring up a dramatic third.

Halfway through the final frame, Mason Emoff (7) dove to poke the puck out of his zone near the blue line and connected with John Moncovich (5) in neutral ice to force a 2-on-1. Hunter (7) snuck behind the Dawgs defense and evened the score with 7:25 remaining in regulation. Fayetteville continued to push the pace, but a late penalty called on the Marksmen resulted in Roanoke’s game-winning goal with just 26 seconds left in the game.

Fayetteville returns to action with a three-games-in-three-days stretch versus the Quad City Storm at the Crown Coliseum December 6-8.
Single-game tickets to all 2024-25 Marksmen home games are available through the ‘tickets’ tab at marksmenhockey.com.