Ice Bears Downed, 5-2, at Home
Published on February 28, 2026 under SPHL (SPHL)
Knoxville Ice Bears News Release
Knoxville conceded three goals in the opening period and never recovered as the Ice Bears fell to the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs 5-2 at the Civic Coliseum Saturday.
David Novotny scored 25 seconds into the game with a one-timer from the left circle as Joe Widmar fed him the puck from the trapezoid behind the Knoxville net.
Noah Finstrom scored six minutes later when he took a pass into the neutral zone, accelerated to the slot around the defender and beat Cristian Wong-Ramos with a wrist shot.
Novotny scored his second of the night when he finished a drive to the net off an entry pass and slipped the puck past Wong-Ramos at 12:44. Wong-Ramos was pulled for Connor Green and finished with four saves.
Knoxville's chances to get on the scoreboard in the opening period were thwarted with Jason Brancheau's one-timer from the slot sailing wide, Westcott's redirect skipping past the far post and Tyler Williams' centering feed glancing off Tim Kent's stick in front of the crease.
Alex Wilkins scored on a power play goal 7:08 into the second to make it 4-0 Roanoke.
Jared Westcott got Knoxville on the board with a breakaway goal at 12:32.
Tim Manning scored on a backdoor tap-in with Roanoke on the man advantage to make it 5-1 at the end of the second period.
Davide Gaeta scored for the fourth straight game with a power play goal off a cross-crease feed from Williams with just under three minutes remaining in the third.
Green finished with 24 saves. Claeys made 33 stops for Roanoke.
Knoxville is in Birmingham on Thursday. The Rail Yard Dawgs return home to play Huntsville Friday night.
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