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AHL Tucson Roadrunners

Roadrunners Come up Short in 4-2 Loss to Chicago

December 16, 2018 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Tucson Roadrunners News Release


The Roadrunners, farthest east they'll play this regular season, fell to the Chicago Wolves by a 4-2 score Saturday night at Allstate Arena.

"It was a game where we played okay but we need to be better," said head coach Jay Varady. "As a group we need to find a way to find a little extra push there, we were chasing the game for a period of time down by a goal. We were battling, but not enough."

Special teams played a factor in what was a rather disciplined night between the teams, just a combined four minor infractions were called, three of the tripping variety, and one for a puck over the glass delay of game.

The story, unfortunately, was Chicago's power play, which capitalized on both of its opportunities, the Wolves' man advantage units producing the team's first and third goals of the night.

Nic Hague netted the first of the Wolves' two power play markers to open the scoring just over five minutes into the contest, giving the Wolves a 1-0 lead.

The Roadrunners would tie the game late in the first when Kyle Capobianco joined a rush, opening up for a cross-ice Adam Helewka pass before beating Chicago's Oscar Dansk with a wrist shot to the top right corner.

Capobianco's goal, his third of the season, gave him 20 points on the year.

The Wolves reclaimed their lead 1:24 later, going up 2-1 before first period's end.

Neither team found the back of the net in the middle frame.

With just over 12 minutes to play in regulation, Daniel Carr connected for Chicago's second power play marker of the evening, giving the Wolves a 3-1 lead.

In his second game back, Nick Merkley got on the board after scooping up a puck behind the Wolves' net upon Helewka winning a battle, powering his way to the front to stuff a wrap-around bid past Dansk to get the Roadrunners to within a goal, 3-2, with 8:44 to play.

Merkley's goal was his first of the season.

Helewka's assist, his second of the night, matched him with Capobianco for the team-lead in points with 20.

Chicago reclaimed its two-goal lead with under five minutes to play via Brandon Pirri.

Hunter Miska stopped 20 of the 24 shots he faced, suffering his fourth loss of the campaign.

Forward Darik Angeli made his team debut, playing on the fourth line to the right of Kevin Ekman-Larsson and Trevor Cheek.

The two teams will reconvene on Sunday afternoon at Allstate Arena for a matinee affair; the puck scheduled to drop just after 2:00 PM MST.

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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