KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -The Knoxville Ice Bears entered Wednesday night’s SPHL playoff opener looking to shift the momentum against a Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs team that had given them fits all season. But despite a solid effort, Knoxville came up short, falling 4-1 in the first game of the best-of-three series.
The game got off to a physical, high-energy start—no surprise, given the bad blood between these two teams. Roanoke opened the scoring at 9:46 of the first period and carried a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
The Rail Yard Dawgs kept the pressure on in the second, tacking on two more goals to put Knoxville in a 3-0 hole.
The Ice Bears finally found a spark in the third when captain Jimmy Soper scored midway through the period. But that was all they could muster. Roanoke added a late goal to put the game out of reach and take a 1-0 lead in the series.
With their season on the line, the Ice Bears now head to Roanoke needing two straight road wins to keep their playoff run alive.
Check out this photo gallery from Inside The Rink’s Michael King for highlights from the game.
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