Tucson Roadrunners Road Ahead: Kicking Off The New Year
Upcoming Games (All time MST)
Wednesday, January 3: Tucson at San Jose, 8:00 p.m.
Friday, January 5: Tucson at Chicago, 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, January 6: Tucson at Chicago, 6:00 p.m.
The Story
Tucson enters the week at 19-8-1-1 and winners of five-straight games as they hit the road after drawing nearly 11,000 fans to Tucson Arena over the weekend, including 6,087 on Saturday night; which was Tucson’s largest home attendance since Saturday, November 9 in 2019. The two combined crowds of 10,950 was the biggest home weekend for Tucson since April 12 and 13 of 2019.
Road Trip To The Bay And Windy City:
After their two quick games/wins at the TCC over the weekend, the Roadrunners return to the road for a five-game road trip with three this week against the San Jose Barracuda and Chicago Wolves. Tucson is 5-0 combined against these two teams averaging 5.60 goals per game. Tucson and San Jose’s previous game was the first game of Tucson’s previous road trip on December 20; where the Roadrunners won a high scoring affair 8-6. The last time the Roadrunners and Wolves squared off was in November 3 and November 4 when Tucson swept Chicago in two games at the TCC. Some could say that sweep ignited the Roadrunners because Tucson is 16-5-1-1 since the beginning of November.
A December To Remember:
As previously mentioned in last week’s Road Ahead, the Roadrunners were already having a tremendous December, but capped it off with two wins at the TCC against the Coachella Valley Firebirds and San Diego Gulls Friday and Saturday. Tucson finished December with a 9-2 record, the best since 2019-20 when that team also finished December 9-2. In the 2019-20 season, the Roadrunners averaged exactly four goals per game and a 2.00 goals against including two shutouts. In 2023-24, this Roadrunners team averaged 4.27 goals per game and a 3.09 goals against. Aku Raty lead the way in December in scoring with 13 points (7 goals 6 assists) while Dylan Guenther (4 goals, 8 assists) and John Leonard (5 goals 7 assists) tied for second with 12 points each. Leonard is currently on a three-game goal streak while Guenther is overall riding a four-game scoring streak where he has four goals and four assists for eight points.
Within One:
The Roadrunners are currently on a five-game winning streak heading into 2024 dating back to December 20; when they defeated San Jose 8-6. The Win streak has drastically put Tucson within one point of first place in both the Pacific Division and entire Western Conference. Though Calgary does have one more point at 41 than Tucson’s 40, the Roadrunners have the better winning percentage (.690) entering the week and have a big chance to take over first with a very favorable first three games of the upcoming road trip.
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 Kim Cota Robles Brett Fera are joined by Roadrunners Assistant Coach Zack Stortini. In addition, a new episode of the Tucson Roadrunners Insider Podcast released on Sunday for a New Year’s Eve Special as Adrian Denny and Jonathon Schaffer discussed Tucson’s amazing December and the tight race of the Pacific Division heading into 2024 and heard from Head Coach Steve Potvin and Forwards John Leonard and Aku Raty.
