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AHL Tucson Roadrunners

Henderson Takes Series Opener with Roadrunners

January 20, 2024 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Tucson Roadrunners News Release


Tucson Roadrunners battle the Henderson Silver Knights
Tucson Roadrunners battle the Henderson Silver Knights
(Tucson Roadrunners, Credit: Kate Dibildox, Tucson Roadrunners)

TUCSON, AZ - The Henderson Silver Knights showed their cards revealing four of a kind while the Roadrunners only had a pair as Tucson dropped a Friday night contest to the Silver Knights 4-2 to fall to 23-12-1-1 on the year from the Tucson Arena.

An early hooking minor on Tucson would kick off the weekend series with Henderson on the wrong foot. A second hooking minor would soon follow, and Tucson would find themselves having to defend a 5-on-3 shorthanded situation. Henderson's power-play would come out strong and find the back of the net giving them the early 1-0 lead. The Roadrunners would kill-off the next Henderson power-play and have a chance of their own on the man advantage but came up empty. Tucson would outshoot Henderson 13-6 in the period and 43-27 on the night.

In the second, the Silver Knights would light the lamp for a second time and take the two-goal advantage. The Roadrunners, currently in first place in the Pacific Division and Western Conference, would answer back with a Milos Kelemen goal at the 6:39 mark cutting the Henderson lead in half. Kelemen was assisted by Peter Diliberatore and Victor Soderstrom on the play. Just under five minutes later Austin Poganski would continue his scoring streak and light the lamp tying the game at 2-2. Poganski, with five goals and five assists in his last 13 games, was assisted by Nathan Smith and Max Szuber who both picked up their 13th assists on the year. With the game knotted up at 2-2 it would be Henderson who would have the hot hand and score again, taking the 3-2 lead. The second period would wrap up with the Henderson one-goal advantage and the strong Tucson crowd was locked into a great final period for their first place Roadrunners.

The third period became a bit of a special teams affair as a total of eight penalties would be called, four for each side. The dagger for Tucson would come at the 7:32 mark as interference and hooking minors were called on the Roadrunners. These minor penalties would put Henderson back on the 5-on-3 power-play. Henderson would not take it for granted as they buried a shot at the 8:25 mark and extended their lead to 4-2. Tucson would fight to answer back but time would expire and the Silver Knights would hold on.

"Every chance that they had, we gave them an opportunity and they capitalized. We have to regroup and be ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow is a new day, we wake up, come to the rink and get ready for 60 minutes on the ice," said Captain Steven Kampfer after Tucson's 4-2 loss to Henderson on Friday night.

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Images from this story

Tucson Roadrunners battle the Henderson Silver Knights
Tucson Roadrunners battle the Henderson Silver Knights
(Kate Dibildox, Tucson Roadrunners)		   



American Hockey League Stories from January 20, 2024


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