FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – The Fayetteville Marksmen erased a two-goal deficit and forced overtime to pick up a point against the Knoxville Ice Bears and hold their third-place spot in the SPHL standings at the Crown Coliseum Saturday.

Ryan Kenny’s back-to-back shutout but came to an end when Knoxville broke the ice nine minutes and 26 seconds into the game with a tip-in near the crease, and the Ice Bears killed continued to build momentum by successfully killing a penalty after that. At 15:47, the visitors took a 2-0 lead off an individual effort by Dawson McKinney, and it looked like they might ride that wave into the intermission, but Ryan Nolan rifled in his eighth goal of the season to cut the deficit to one goal in the final two minutes of the period.

Neither team could find clean offensive chances through the first few minutes of the frame, but Alex Gritz (9) tied the game from Nick Parody (6) at 8:12 and set up a dramatic push toward the final regulation horn. Through 40 minutes, the teams sat 2-2 and Knoxville held an 18-13 shot advantage.
Despite carrying play for much of the third period and doubling up shots 10-5, Fayetteville wouldn’t find the back of the net again and the Ice Bears won off a deflected shot just 14 seconds into overtime to secure the weekend split.

The Marksmen and the Ice Bears are tied for third place in points, and will not see each other again in the regular season. Fayetteville will take to the road next weekend before returning home on Star Wars Night, Saturday, January 25 at 6 p.m. Single-game tickets to Star Wars night and all remaining 2024-25 home games are available at marksmenhockey.com.