Tucson Roadrunners Road Ahead: Heading To The Rockies
Upcoming Games (All time MST)
Friday, December 8: Tucson at Colorado, 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, December 9: Tucson at Colorado, 7:00 p.m.
Friday, December 15: Abbotsford at Tucson, 7:00 p.m.
Saturday December 16: Abbotsford at Tucson, 7:00 p.m.
On To Colorado:
After a quick two-game home stand, the Roadrunners head into Colorado with the seventh-best record in the AHL at 12-6-1-1. They’ll look to continue their road success too where they are 7-2-1-0, while allowing just 2.40 goals-against away from Southern Arizona. The last time these two teams clashed was in March of last season in Colorado when Tucson swept the Eagles in two games, outscoring them 9-2. Jan Jenik (2 goals, 1 assist) and Colin Theisen (3 assists) had three points each in the series. The sweep helped Tucson’s late season push to the Calder Cup Playoffs.
You Get A Goal, And You Get A Goal!
In their two-game sweep over the San Jose Barracuda last weekend, the Roadrunners scored 12 total goals with five on Friday and seven on Saturday. Eight Roadrunners had multiple-point weekends in: Travis Barron (4 goals), Josh Doan (2 goals), John Leonard (4 assists), Hunter Drew (2 goals, 1 assist), Max Szuber (2 assists), Zach Sanford (1 goal, 1 assist), Aku Raty (3 assists) and Cameron Hebig (1 goal, 1 assists). Three of Barron’s goals came in his hat-trick on Saturday night and all of Drew’s three points came on Saturday as well.
Road Trip Extension:
After their 3-1-1-0 road trip, the message in the team’s locker room was the trip will continue into the home stand against San Jose and that it did. In Tucson’s last seven games, they have a 5-1-1-0 record and are averaging 3.28 goals-per-game in that span. In those same seven games, Doan (4 goals, 1 assist) Barron, (5 goals) and Soderstrom (1 goal, 4 assists) all have had five points each. Tucson has also had three different goaltenders make a start, Matthew Villalta went 4-1-0-0 with a 2.21 goals against average and.929 save percentage. Dylan Wells who signed to a PTO on the trip in Henderson made one start stopping 27 of 30 in am overtime loss to Henderson while Anson Thornton made one start in his return from an injury stopping 23 of 28 in the 7-5 win against San Jose.
Making Noise:
Tucson enters the week with a five-game point streak where they are 4-0-1-0. That mark is the fourth-best out of teams with current point streak in the AHL. Their 12-6-1-1 record marks the fifth time in eight seasons in team history that the club has 11 wins or more 20 games into the season with 25 standings points or more. Last time the team was at this mark a quarter-way into the season was in 2019-20 when Tucson was 15-5-0-0 with 30 standings points.
On The Mic:
Tucson Roadrunners Happy Hour airs every Tuesday at 5 p.m. on FOX Sports 1450AM and the iHeartRadio app, with a podcast version also available after each episode on the iHeartRadio app. This week “Voice of the Roadrunners” Adrian Denny, with co-hosts Kim Cota Robles and Arizona Daily Star Sports Editor Brett Fera, are joined by Roadrunners forward Travis Barron. In addition, a new episode of the Tucson Roadrunners Insider Podcast released on Sunday as Adrian Denny and Jonathon Schaffer recapped Tucson’s sweep over San Jose and what Matthew Villalta was up to on his day off.
