Ice Dogs Send Roadrunners to Fourth Straight Loss, 3-1

by Andrew Nordmeier
Published on February 15, 2006 under ECHL (ECHL)
Phoenix RoadRunners


In the roller coaster ride of the Phoenix Roadrunners' inaugural season, the last five days would be a sharp, fast drop. Following a three-game sweep at Alaska, a long day of travel Monday and their fourth game in five nights, the Roadrunners looked flat and dropped their fourth straight game, a 3-1 loss to the Long Beach Ice Dogs Tuesday night at the US Airways Center.

"They're battling hard tonight but they were out of gas," Phoenix Head Coach Ron Filion said about his team that traveled more than 15,000 miles on its nine-game road trip, "They're tired and it's understandable." Filion also said he's one not to make excuses for his team's performance based on the rigors of traveling back from Alaska.

Sean McAslan and Christian Larrivee each tallied a goal and assist to help Long Beach (28-16-5), push its winning streak to six games and an ECHL-best 18-5-2 mark on the road this season. Both teams had plenty of chances on the power play, nine for each, but Long Beach converted when it counted and that made the difference.

Larrivee scored the eventual game-winner at 8:00 of the third period. He took a pass from McAslan and buried the puck behind Phoenix netminder Michael Mole for his 18th goal of the season. Phoenix defenseman Dave Cousineau was caught a little out of position and lost sight of Larrivee, allowing him to slip in the back door.

Phoenix (16-28-3) found itself down 1-0 off of a turnover by defenseman Paul Ballantyne. He lost the puck in the corner while the Roadrunners were on a power play. McAslan picked up the puck, skated to the front of the net and beat Mole low along the ice on the glove side for his 17th goal of the season and his 15th in his last 20 games at 15:22.

The lone Roadrunner goal knotted the score at 1-1 and came when Miguel Lafleche stuffed a rebound past Ice Dogs' netminder Jaroslav Halak at 9:55 for his fourth goal of the season. Long Beach closed out the scoring with Justin Aikens' empty-net goal with 21 seconds left. Long Beach outshot Phoenix 28-27. The Ice Dogs finished 1-of-9 on the power play while Phoenix went 0-for-9.

"We don't have anyone to run the power play and we're missing a sniper," Filion said, "I've been looking hard to get someone to score goals."

Phoenix thought they may have had someone to add offensive punch when they picked up Johnathan Lehun off the waiver wire from Stockton. Unfortunately, Lehun chose not to report and has been suspended by the team to keep his rights.

After a couple days to rest, Phoenix will enjoy having four of its next five games at home starting with a visit from the Victoria Salmon Kings Friday night. Phoenix has beaten Victoria all four times this season, accounting for a quarter of all wins.

"We're playing for our pride," Filion said.

Three Stars

3. LaFleche-PHX Lone goal for Phoenix

2. McAslan-LB Goal and an assist

1. Larrivee-LB Game winning goal

Notes: Taylor Christie and Garrett Burnett were healthy scratches for Phoenix...Long Beach is the only team in the league with a winning record overall but a losing record at home (10-11-3)...Long Beach was an ECHL-record tying 10 straight road games. Las Vegas pulled that feat once this year...Long Beach is 21-4-2 when scoring first and 20-14-1 outside of its division...Phoenix sits 21 points behind the Utah Grizzlies for the final playoff spot...Mole leads the ECHL in minutes played with 2,084 and losses with 20...Halak leads the league with a .939 save percentage having allowed 26 goals and making 397 saves...Attendance was 3,056.

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