ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) — The Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs got a goal from Dominiks Marcinkevics in overtime to pull out a 5-4 win over the Birmingham Bulls Monday night at the Berglund Center. Roanoke leads the best of five SPHL Final series 2-1 with game four Tuesday at 7:05 pm at the Berglund Center.
A Dawgs win and they clinch their first-ever President’s Cup title and first hockey title for the Roanoke Valley since the Virginia Lancers won the Atlantic Coast Hockey League title in 1987.
The Dawgs also got goals from John Stampohar, Nick Ford, CJ Stubbs, and Nick DeVito in the game. In the first period, Roanoke trailed 1-0 before Stampohar tied the game at 1. The Dawgs took a 2-1 lead when Ford scored. Birmingham would tie the game seconds later with a goal at 2 after one period of play.
Roanoke would score the only goal in the second period courtesy of Stubbs for a 3-2 lead. In the third period, the Bulls would tie the game at 3. Then, DeVito for the Dawgs would score to give them a 4-3 lead. Birmingham’s Joe Colatarci was called for a 5-minute major and was ejected from the game, giving Roanoke a five-minute power play. The Bulls not only killed Roanoke’s power play but they would score a short-handed goal to tie the game at 4 and force overtime. In the overtime, Roanoke would win it at 11:53 on the Marcinkevics goal. Roanoke’s crowd of 5,217 is the fourth-largest all-time attendance in an SPHL postseason game.
