Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs season-ticket holder Ken Wood leaned forward in his rinkside seat Tuesday at a playoff hockey game.
“Go Dawgs!” he shouted.
“Oh,” he corrected. “Go Cats!”
Can’t blame him because postseason hockey for the Blue Ridge Bobcats is a completely different animal.
Some 70 miles from where the Rail Yard Dawgs’ 2024-25 season ended three days earlier, Wood looked on as the Bobcats brought playoff hockey to Hitachi Energy Arena on Tuesday for the first postseason game ever held in Wythe County in any professional team sport.
Friday, another one will take place in the newly renovated 3,600-seat area overlooking Exit 77 on Interstate 81. The Bobcats advanced to the Continental Division semifinals 5-2 victory over the Baton Rouge Zydeco in a history-making, one-game, wild-card Federal Prospects Hockey League playoff.
The second-year Wythe County franchise will open a best-of-three series against the Carolina Thunderbirds of Winston-Salem on home ice with a 7:30 p.m. puck drop.
“This is a hockey town now,” Bobcats head coach Vojtech Zemlicka said.
Excitement for the do-or-die playoff game was palpable in Wytheville, where for the better part of the past two seasons young men from Russia, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Canada and the United States have banded together to play minor-league hockey.
Zemlicka, a 30-year-old Prague native who played and coached for the Rail Yard Dawgs, sensed a different vibe heading into Tuesday’s game where 1,438 spectators attended on a windy and cold spring evening.
“I was getting messages from this morning and driving around the town and seeing all the businesses having the flags behind their windows, cars with the flags,” Zemlicka said. “I knew we were going to have a great crowd. This is the first time for a professional playoff in Wytheville, so we’re so thankful for all the people showing up.
“The fans have been absolutely awesome from Day 1 this season. The fans have been the ‘sixth player’ for us, and we couldn’t do it without them.”
Destiny Lunsford had faith in the local team. The 25-year-old Knoxville native relocated to take a job in Wytheville and be closer to her boyfriend, Bobcats rookie forward Nicholas Stuckless.
For much of the game Lunsford held a sign that read, “It may be cold in here, but No. 27 is hot!”
She was seated with two friends, Julia Bailey and Megan Atkinson, who also have boyfriends on the Bobcats roster.
“They’re going to win,” Lunsford promised.
To the right of the three young women sat two ladies wearing Bobcats ‘ears’ and a shirtless young man holding a handmade sign.
Stephen Bear was seated a few spots to the left. By day, Bear is the Wythe County administrator. On this night, he was just another fan in a black Bobcats pullover among a like-minded crowd hoping for at least one more home game.
The Bobcats failed to qualify for the playoffs in their inaugural season, finishing with 16 victories and 40 losses.
Improvement was significant in Year 2 as the franchise went 29-27 for a 13-game rise, defeating every other club in the 14-team league at least once. With 92 total points, Blue Ridge edged Baton Rouge by one point to finish fourth in the Continental race, earning home ice Tuesday.
The Bobcats closed the regular season with five consecutive victories and kept riding the wave as Michael Mercurio pushed a rebound into the goal for a 1-0 lead just 3 minutes and 32 seconds into the game.
Baton Rouge was unimpressed.
The Zydeco defeated Blue Ridge in five of their seven regular-season meetings. Before five minutes had elapsed in the second period, forward Jake Cox pumped in his second goal of the night to give the Louisiana visitors a 2-1 lead.
The Bobcats’ early energy had ebbed.
“It’s difficult, right. You just give it everything you’ve got. We were full-tilt right away, but they kind of gave it back to us,” said Bobcats team captain Daniel Martin, a native of Ottawa, Ontario. “We kept pushing. That’s all it is. It’s playoff hockey.”
The Bobcats had a 41-28 edge in shots on goal over the Zydeco, but Baton Rouge goaltender Sammy Bernard turned into a brick wall. Trailing 2-1, the season was quickly melting into the mountainside until Blue Ridge’s Denis “The Menace” Radchenko uncorked a vicious slap shot from the left wing for the game-tying goal with 11:22 on the clock.
Playoff hockey requires physical play to the edge of the rulebook or slightly beyond. The head referee generally allows some leeway to prevent a penalty from potentially deciding the outcome.
“That’s kind of the big thing for both of us, just being in each other’s faces and bringing the physicality and just being relentless,” said second-year Bobcat Alex Norwinski, a Botetourt County native and the team’s lone local product.
“The refs had a talk with our coach and kind of let him know straight up, ‘Hey, we’re not going to be calling much. It’s the toughest hockey you’re going to play all season. We’re not going to be crazy with the whistles all day.’ “
However, a crucial penalty call ultimately swung the momentum for good.
Baton Rouge’s Ryo Namiki, a native of Japan who was among the league leaders in penalty minutes on the season with 111, was whistled for his third violation, a hooking call with 9:04 to play that he protested vigorously.
Twenty-five seconds later, Daniel Klinecky slammed a shot from the right wing past Bernard for a 3-2 Blue Ridge lead.
The Bobcats struggled to even produce a shot on their first two power-play opportunities, but Klinecky lined up his laser and did not miss.
“We just talked about simplifying [the power play],” Zemlicka said. “[Earlier] we were looking for a seam pass, 2 feet high over the stick. That’s not going to work against a [penalty kill] who clogs the middle of the ice. So we just talked about getting up to the top with a chance to shoot, get bodies in front of the net against this goalie. It worked out.”
Carson Andreoli and Martin added empty-net goals in the final 41 seconds, giving Blue Ridge foul goals in a span of 11:22.
Moments later, the Bobcats celebrated their first postseason victory, circling the rink to salute the passionate fan base with a mix of joy and relief.
“It was definitely … we’re talking about being 20 minutes away from the end of the season,” Zemlicka said. “We worked too damn hard the whole season to just let it go. I’m happy that the guys found no quit in them and played with the heart and passion, and it showed.
“It was a playoff, but it didn’t feel [completely] like a playoff. We know we can do more. We’re happy for every day we can extend our season. Part of our culture we built here is we are a family, and we will continue fighting for each other.”
Bobcats team officials hope to break the franchise single-game attendance record of 2,079 set earlier this season against Carolina, which should have a number of supporters making the trip from Winston-Salem.
The two rivals collided 14 times this season with the Thunderbirds holding an 8-6 edge. Game 2 is Saturday in Winston-Salem. Carolina will host Game 3, if necessary, Sunday.
The winner will take on Athens (Ga.) or Columbus (Ga.) in the conference final. Defending FPHL Commissioners Cup champion Binghamton (N.Y.) looms on the other side.
“I’m happy it’s Carolina,” Zemlicka said of the series. “I think it’s going to be a very good series, a very good hockey team. This year we showed them that we can hang with them. I think this team has a chance to beat anybody.”
Despite the late deficit Tuesday and the Bobcats’ trouble getting the puck in the net for the first 50 minutes, Martin said he refused to allow any negative thoughts, befitting of a team captain.
“We never felt dead in the water,” he said. “To win a championship you have to learn how to play from behind and after that … you’ve got to learn to play with the lead. We just had a really good team effort.
“I thought we were going to win. I planned for the win. That’s all I really planned for.”
Norwinski knew what a loss would have meant. After all, hockey is just a part-time gig for these guys. The Lord Botetourt High School graduate’s full-time job is with his father’s insurance business.
Staring at a 2-1 deficit with time ticking away, Norwinski knew the score.
“If I don’t win tonight,” he said, “I’d be selling insurance.”
FPHL PLAYOFFS
FIRST ROUND
April 15
Wytheville 5, Baton Rouge 2 (Wytheville advances)
Watertown 4, Fraser 2 (Watertown advances)
DIVISION SEMIFINALS
April 16
Columbus 7, Athens 4 (Columbus leads series 1-0)
April 18
Danbury at Port Huron, 7:05 p.m.
Columbus at Athens, 7:05 p.m.
Winston-Salem at Wytheville, 7:30 p.m.
Binghamton at Watertown, 7:30 p.m.
April 19
Watertown at Binghamton, 7 p.m.
Port Huron at Danbury, 7:05 p.m.
Columbus at Athens, 7:05 p.m., if necessary
Wytheville at Winston-Salem, 7:30 p.m.
April 20
Port Huron at Danbury, 5 p.m., if necessary
Wytheville at Winston-Salem, 6:05 p.m., if necessary
Watertown at Binghamton, 7 p.m., if necessary
