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Game 37 Preview: Tucson at Ontario

January 18, 2020 - American Hockey League (AHL) - Tucson Roadrunners News Release


Game #37 - Tucson (26-9-1-0) at Ontario (17-18-3-1)

7 PM MST, Toyota Arena, Ontario, CA

LISTEN LIVE Fox Sports 1450, iHeart Radio app

WATCH LIVE AHL TV

Roadrunners Current Roster: Click here

Referees: Jim Curtin (#90), Justin Kea (#70)

Linesmen: J.M. McNulty (#24), Steven Walsh (#85)

Playing their fourth game in their stint of five away from Tucson Arena tonight, the Roadrunners will look to take the "sandwich" meeting of their California trip tonight against the Ontario Reign, AHL affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings.

Although the team had a good start and took the night's first goal, Friday evening got away from Tucson due to some penalty trouble and lapses in their defensive end, two things that they'll look to control tonight.

Three Things

1) The positive takeaway from Friday's wrong result was that both of the reasons that led to the defeat are very correctible mistakes. The team is the second-fewest penalized in the entire Western Conference and when you gift a skilled team such as San Diego a near five-on-three, they're obviously talented enough to make you pay. With that being said, tonight's opponent is the most penalized in the West and will almost certainly be looking to mix it up, especially considering their five meetings against Tucson this season haven't gone their way. If the group can bounce back the way they did last Friday against a red-hot Colorado team, there's no reason to believe they can't tonight against Ontario.

2) Ontario jumped out to a 3-0 first period lead over Stockton last night en route to their 5-1 victory Friday on home ice. As tonight's opponent rested in their own beds waiting for Tucson to arrive, the story of their success from last night was two-fold, as it has been most of the season. A large part of their win was their reliance on their netminder Cal Petersen, who stopped 50 (!!!) of 51 shots against the team tied with Tucson for the most goals-per-game. As we all know, numbers only tell some of the story and Petersen, despite only touting a .903 save percentage this season, is always very, very capable of stealing his team a win.

3) It's been two weeks since his last game action but all signs indicate that the league's best rookie netminder, Ivan Prosvetov has the green light for the visiting team this evening. It's been 14 days of backing up Adin Hill in Glendale, meeting the team in Colorado last weekend, then returning to Canada for more NHL time for the 20-year-old rookie, who still holds first place in both goals against average and save percentage among all first-year goaltenders. Make no mistake, last night's defeat was not to the fault of Tyler Parks', however, when you have Prosvetov not only ready but needing game action, it seems as if it would not be a tough decision to make...

What's The Word?

Roadrunners forward Matteo Gennaro on making his Tucson debut Friday...

"It was kind of unfortunate, my injury. Timing wasn't great and it was one of those things that you hope never happens, but it did and I'm glad to be back playing hockey and to be healthy. That's the most important thing. I'm also very glad to be back here with Tucson and playing my first game last night felt great. It feels good to be back and I'm eager to continue to get my game back to where it needs to be."

Roadrunners forward Matteo Gennaro on the team's first half of the season and his role...

"The guys have a good thing going here right now. The team's got some chemistry and our record shows. I'm just trying to mesh into that and keep the wins going."

Roadrunners forward Matteo Gennaro on facing consistently hot teams this month...

"You want to face some adversity and you want to face some good opponents toward the end of the season. You want to build good habits and you want to know the style of play that your team wants to play. Last night was a good game, now we need to shake it off and go in tonight with the same attitude."

Number to Know

29. Through five meetings against Ontario this season the offense has shined, totaling 29 goals.

We're Doing It Live

Catch tonight's active LIVE on AHLTV or join Roadrunners play-by-play voice Adrian Denny on Fox Sports 1450 AM and iHeart Radio as he calls the game from the Roadrunners' flagship radio station, where coverage begins at 7:45 PM.


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