Roadrunners Reel In Salmon Kings 3-1

Published on November 30, 2005 under ECHL (ECHL)
Phoenix RoadRunners News Release


The Phoenix Roadrunners continue to claw their way out of the West Division cellar and took one step closer to doing so with their 3-1 win over the Victoria Salmon Kings Tuesday night at America West Arena in front of a crowd of 3,014.

Miguel Lafleche, Dean Tiltgen and Peter Trovato scored for the Roadrunners, winners of two of their last three games following an eight-game winless slide.

Phoenix may have found a way to rejuvenate its offense and started shooting more. They outshot the Salmon Kings 33-23, the first time since October 23rd that Phoenix was on the high end of the shot count and just the third time all year.

"We didn't play a perfect game. We played 20 minutes perfect tonight." Roadrunners Head Coach Ron Filion said, "We weren't satisfied with the first 40 minutes, that's for sure. The last 20 minutes everybody stepped it up."

Phoenix (5-9-2) struck first with a goal from Lafleche. Making his season debut after being sidelined with a knee injury, Lafleche put Phoenix ahead with a long wrist shot. The shot came in unobstructed against Salmon Kings' netminder B. J. Boxma. It hit Boxma's blocker and trickled into the net at 14:23 for a 1-0 lead.

"When you throw it on net anything can happen," Lafleche said, "I never thought that shot would go in but it did."

Victoria (6-12-1) fell behind 2-0 when Tiltgen picked up the rebound of a Jason Deskins shot and beat Boxma for his sixth goal of the season at 4:09 of the second period.

The Salmon Kings cut it to a one-goal game 73 seconds later when Nate Forster's blast from the point found its way past a screened Michael Mole and into the Phoenix net. It would be the only shot to slip by Mole as he improved to 2-6-2 on the season.

"We came down to their level in the second period but we picked up in the third and took it over," Lafleche said.

Trovato closed out the scoring in an eerily similar way to he scored his first goal of the season. Both of Trovato's goals have come against Victoria and have come in the opening 90 seconds of the third period while on special teams and chasing rebounds.

In this game, Trovato fired a long shot from just inside the blue line at Boxma knocked down. The rebound skittered to his left, just out of the reach of Boxma's stick. Trovato swooped in, found the puck and slid it into the empty net for his second goal just 44 seconds into the final period. This one was a power-play goal while his first one was a shorthanded tally.

Victoria stayed in the game despite playing with just 12 skaters due to injuries and Phoenix capitalized on it late in the game.

"We took advantage of it in the third period because we started putting pressure on them and playing with passion," Filion said about the period where Phoenix outshot Victoria 15-6.

The Salmon Kings pulled Boxma for the extra attacker with a minute to play but couldn't draw any closer. They closed out their five game road trip at 1-4 with the lone win coming over San Diego.

Phoenix tries to get out of the basement when they host the fourth-place Las Vegas Wranglers Thursday night at America West Arena to conclude a four-game homestand.

"We have to catch Victoria and our goal is to be in Vegas' spot," Filion said, "We need to play with passion like we did in the third period."

Three Stars

3. Tilgen-PHX Game-winning goal

2. Lafleche-PHX Goal in season debut

1. Trovato-PHX Back-breaking goal early in the third period.

Notes: Phoenix scored the first goal for the first time in eight games...The Roadrunners are 3-3 when scoring first and 2-6-2 when they don't...Phoenix is 3-0-1 when leading after two periods while Victoria is 0-8-0 when trailing after 40 minutes...Mole picked up an assist on Trovato's goal, his first professional point...Phoenix waived forward John Fieweger and picked up Mark Wires from Trenton via waivers; Wires wears #28 for the Roadrunners...Victoria finished 0-for-4 on the power play while Phoenix finished 1-of-2 with the man advantage...The 33 shots are the first time in 10 games Phoenix has tallied more than 27 in a game...Phoenix is 4-2 when registering more than 30 shots in a game but only 1-7-2 when getting off less than 30...Phoenix is 4-5-2 at home.

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