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AHL Tucson Roadrunners

Game 15 Preview: Tucson at San Jose

November 17, 2019 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Tucson Roadrunners News Release


Game #15 - Tucson (11-3-0-0) at San Jose (4-8-0-1)

6 PM MST, SAP Center - San Jose California

LISTEN LIVE 97.1 The Bull, iHeart Radio app

WATCH LIVE AHL TV

Referees: Michael Markovic (#47), Andrew Wilk (#57)

Linesmen: Alexander Ledovskiy (#83), Brett Martin (#57)

The swing through California continues with the first of two meetings against San Jose coming in the form of a Sunday night showdown against the Barracuda.

Two weeks ago today the Roadrunners were in this very same building and had one of their most difficult starts of the year but thanks to a bailout performance from Adin Hill and a four-goal third period, the club rattled off their second of what has now become a five game win streak.

So does the crew get a sixth today and make history? Does Adin Hill potentially make history himself and win his sixth in a row as well?

Three Things

1) Usually in each game there's one element of a team's effort that's easily identifiable as a key factor in their win or loss. Last Friday it was two timely third period goals to force OT and then a shootout. Last Saturday it was the offense putting up seven goals. Friday in Stockton there wasn't that number, at least statistically; it was just an all-around solid effort. Eric Comrie was good early for the Roadrunners and it was phenomenal to see Hudson Fasching get into the goal column but it wasn't as if the power play (0/5) had their usual success and no strong comeback effort was needed. We hear so often from coaches and players regarding their desire of playing a "full 60 minutes", Friday night's game feels like it was as close to that as anyone could hope for.

2) After the Roadrunners won their fifth game in a row for the first time around on Saturday, October 26 against Iowa, the team strolled into a midweek set against Chicago and in some capacity essentially hit a reality check. Players were quoted postgame saying that they may have gone in feeling a little too confident and missing a little bit of that fire that got them their consecutive wins in the first place. One would have to think that that will be addressed today before taking on San Jose, certainly no one is looking for a letdown today.

3) Breaking rotation, but understandably so, on Friday night, Eric Comrie put together another strong performance behind the Roadrunners. Including five shorthanded situations, Comrie had a performance that surely he would likely categorize as more of "his game" as opposed to the six-goal win last Saturday. So what happens tonight? Does the mileage of Comrie continue to add up and the team goes back to the well once again because they only have so many days with him? Or does eight days rest warrant Adin Hill getting back in there in an effort to avoid him sitting for too long as well?

What's The Word?

Roadrunners forward Lane Pederson after having some time to digest Friday night's win...

"It was a strong effort. We played the right way from start to finish. Our penalty kill was solid and it's all stuff we need to keep going for the rest of the road trip."

Roadrunners forward Lane Pederson on his team-leading tenth goal from Friday...

"It was a really good pass from [Tyler Steenbergen]. Both him and [Nick Merkley] did a nice job on the forecheck there and they eventually found me in the slot with all the time in the world. Luckily it went in."

Roadrunners forward Lane Pederson on finally putting Stockton in the rearview mirror for a bit...

"That's a really good team over there. It turned into a bit of a mini-playoff series and for us to come out on top in all four is huge. Divisional points are so important come March and April and we're happy to have all four against them."

Number to Know

29. Thanks to all five of their goals coming at even strength on Friday, the team now has 29 goals at five-on-five this year. For a team that's had quite a deal of success on the power play, it's quite the achievement for the group to be outscoring their opponents 30-17 in even strength situations.

We're Doing It Live

Catch tonight's active LIVE on AHLTV or join Roadrunners play-by-play voice Adrian Denny on 97.1 The Bull and iHeart Radio as he calls the game from the Roadrunners' flagship radio station, where coverage begins at 5:45 PM.

Check out the Tucson Roadrunners Statistics

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