AHL Tucson Roadrunners

Roadrunners Score Four in Third for Sixth-Straight Win

Published on April 20, 2024 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Tucson Roadrunners News Release


Tucson Roadrunners' Ben McCartney, Travis Barron, and Peter DiLiberatore on game night
Tucson Roadrunners' Ben McCartney, Travis Barron, and Peter DiLiberatore on game night
(Tucson Roadrunners, Credit: kate)

TUCSON, AZ - The Roadrunners took a little extra time to warm up (about 54 minutes) as they scored four goals in the final 5:12 of the game to defeat San Jose 5-1 and improve to 43-23-3-2 on the year from the Tucson Arena.

It was a quiet first twenty minutes from the Tucson Arena Friday night for the Roadrunners, who would surrender a goal to the Barracuda five minutes into the period, but only allow seven total shots in the frame. No penalties were given out in the first and San Jose would take a 1-0 lead into the locker room.

An early roughing minor on San Jose would send the Roadrunners to a power-play, one they would capitalize on, scoring the game-tying goal three minutes and change into the second frame. It would be Aku Raty, Tucson's current leading scorer, tallying the power-play goal and knotting things up at one apiece. Raty's top shelf beauty was assisted by Austin Poganski and Colin Theisen.

Through 10 total penalties given out in the frame the score would remain 1-1 for the remainder of the second. Tucson would outshoot San Jose 17-11 in the period and Tucson netminder Matthew Villalta was perfect; making all 11 saves. Villalta would pick up his 30th win, which leads the AHL, on Friday night.

Things would really get fun in the third period, starting at the 14:28 mark when Max Szuber would score game-winning goal on a backhanded shot from Hunter Drew. Curtis Douglas would also pick up an assist on the play. Just over a minute later, Cam Hebig would find the back of the net and light the lamp for Tucson, giving the Roadrunners a 3-1 lead. Austin Poganski and Ben McCartney would assist Hebig on the goal.

After San Jose pulled their goalie, Nathan Smith scored an empty-netter, sending the Tucson Arena into party mode. With the San Jose goalie back in net, Ben McCartney would join the action, scoring the Roadrunners fifth goal of the night, and fourth goal in a stretch of four minutes and thirty-two seconds.

Tucson would win the game 5-1 in front of 5,397 Roadrunners fans. The regular season finale gets underway Saturday evening at 7:00pm.

"When we play a full 60 minutes and have four lines rolling we are a hard team to beat. We are looking to gear up for playoffs and playing in these games has been a lot of fun. We have a lot of great players coming down and we have a deep team and a lot of options," said Forward Cam Hebig following Tucson's 5-1 victory on Friday evening.

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Images from this story

Tucson Roadrunners' Ben McCartney, Travis Barron, and Peter DiLiberatore on game night
Tucson Roadrunners' Ben McCartney, Travis Barron, and Peter DiLiberatore on game night
(kate)		   



American Hockey League Stories from April 20, 2024


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