Game #51: Tucson Roadrunners (3) vs Henderson Silver Knights (4)
Game #51: Tucson Roadrunners vs Henderson Silver Knights
SOG: TUC (16) – HSK (31)
PP: TUC (1/3) – HSK (1/5)
HENDERSON SCORING: Jonas Rondbjerg (5,6), Brandon Hickey (2)
TUCSON SCORING: Josh Doan (22), Max Szuber (5), Aku Raty (12)
It was a tilt full of Travis Barron fists in the second period of Friday night’s matchup between the Henderson Silver Knights and Tucson Roadrunners. Barron’s fight would get the Roadrunners buzzing, no pun intended from the video title, as they would add a go-ahead goal in the period. Travis Barron, the 2016 Colorado Avalanche draft pick, is in his third year with the Roadrunners. Barron, the defenseman from Brampton, ON, has 29 goals and 33 assists in his AHL career.
DON’T OVERLOOK IT
OH WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES – There’s an old saying, “Day to day nothing changes, but looking back everything is different”. Well, the difference for Josh Doan is that one year ago today (roughly) he was scoring two points, a goal and an assist, for the Arizona State Sun Devils against the University of Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves, and today he was scoring his team-leading 22nd goal for the Tucson Roadrunners. Josh Doan currently ranks fourth in the AHL in points for rookies, and second in goals. All that for a player that has as many goals in his first professional season as number of years he has been on the earth, 22. Oh, and he scored in the shootout on Friday night’s contest.
LOOK AT THIS
A true meeting of the minds happened just before the Henderson blueline as the five skaters on the ice for Tucson during Aku Raty’s second period goal meet to celebrate. Four of the five players seen scored points for Tucson in Friday night’s contest. Josh Doan scored his team leading 22nd goal, Captain Steven Kampfer and Forward Jan Jenik assisted Raty in the contest.
THEY SAID IT
“I thought that was a step in the right direction from a previous few games. Special teams was big and we’re going to get out of this little slump that we’re in. Today, we did a lot of the right things, the Tucson way, and took that right step.”
Forward Austin Poganski following Tucson’s 4-3 shootout loss on Friday night.
THE RUNDOWN
In a turn of events from the previous couple of games against Bakersfield, Tucson would score first, early in the first period, and take the 1-0 lead from the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, NV. This time it would be Josh Doan, Tucson’s leading scorer, ripping his 22nd of the year into the back of the net just 1:10 into the game. It was the fastest goal of the year to start a game for the Roadrunners and silenced the Henderson faithful early. Doan was assisted by Colin Theisen and Max Szuber. The Silver Knights would respond with a power-play goal just past the halfway point in the period. Then, to bookend the first frame with Tucson goals, defenseman Max Szuber would find the back of the net and score Tucson’s second goal of the contest and pick up his second point of the period.
Henderson would need less than two minutes in the second period to score a goal of their own and tie things up 2-2. The score would remain knotted up for most of the frame before Aku Raty, Tucson’s second leading scorer, would do what he does best and light the lamp for the Roadrunners. Raty was assisted by Captain Steven Kampfer and Jan Jenik. Raty now has a three-game point streak and has four points in his last three games for Tucson. It was a power-play goal for Raty.
The final frame of regulation was even in shots, 6-6, but the arrow pointed to Henderson in the scoring category 1-0. A goal at the 11:20 mark of the third would tie things up 3-3 for the rest of regulation. Each side would go 0-1 on the power-play in the final frame but the horn would blow at 3-3 and it was time for some free hockey in Henderson.
No overtime goal was scored, in large part thanks to Tucson netminder Matthew Villalta, who had three saves in the 3-on-3 overtime period. The shootout would be tied at the end of three skaters, with Josh Doan scoring and Matthew Villalta making two saves. In the final two shooters for each side only a Henderson player would score, giving the Silver Knights the two-points and a 4-3 victory.
