Game #60: Tucson Roadrunners (1) vs Ontario Reign (4)
Game #60: Tucson Roadrunners vs Ontario Reign
SOG: TUC (33) – ONT (23)
PP: TUC (0/1) – ONT (0/3)
ONT SCORING: Samuel Fagemo (37), Akil Thomas (18), Taylor Ward (7), Tyler Madden (13)
TUCSON SCORING: Josh Doan (25)
I mean, c’mon. That is not easy to do despite what your eyes are currently telling you from watching this. There may not be a better sound in hockey than the lamp being lit by Tucson Roadrunners leading scorer Josh Doan. This might also be a phenomenal time to say how Doan is not only the Roadrunners leading scorer, but the AHL Rookie goal scoring leader as well. Not bad for a kid from Arizona. Josh Doan, a forward from Scottsdale, has 45 points (25 goals, 20 assists) in 60 games this year, his first full professional season.
DON’T OVERLOOK IT
GOOD THINGS COME IN FOURS – Your Tucson Roadrunners came in to Wednesday night’s contest with Ontario riding a four-game winning streak. That streak was tied for the league’s longest winning streak with the Manitoba Moose, AHL affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets. This is the Tucson Roadrunners second four-game unbeaten streak in the month of March (yes, we know there are still 11 days in March, this team is really good) and fifth streak of at least four games of going unbeaten in four-straight games this year.
LOOK AT THIS
Forward Curtis Douglas squares off with an Ontario Reign player just 1:59 into the game on Wednesday evening. Douglas, who leads the team with 110 PIMs, has been a force to be reckoned with in the AHL this season dropping the gloves 8 times. Douglas is approaching his personal high in PIMs which he did with the Roadrunners in 2022-2023 with 119. Douglas is a fifth-year-pro and second-year Roadrunner.
THEY SAID IT
“Obviously you can’t win every game in this league and in this division it’s tough every single night. We played well as a group but the score doesn’t show it. We had a chance in the final couple minutes of the game but didn’t capitalize on it,”
Forward Josh Doan following Tucson’s 4-1 loss on Wednesday night against Ontario.
THE RUNDOWN
The first two periods were very quiet for the Tucson offense but loud for the fist of Curtis Douglas, who would drop the gloves under two minutes into the game and land several punches on an Ontario player. Despite taking 12 shots on goal in each of the first two frames, Tucson would come up empty on lighting the lamp in both periods. Ontario would come up empty in the first period with nine shots on goal. It wasn’t until the 11:55 mark of the second period that Ontario would sneak one past Tucson netminder Matthew Villalta. The 1-0 lead would take the two teams into the second intermission and leave Villalta with 17 saves on 18 shots through 40 minutes of play.
Through those first 40 minutes of play Ontario would draw two Roadrunners penalties but go 0-2 on their power-play against the good guys in white sweaters. It wasn’t until the third period that Tucson would get their first power-play opportunity. They would, however, come up empty on the man advantage.
Trailing 1-0 in the third period it would be team-leading scorer Josh Doan who would light the lamp for the Roadrunners and tie the game up 1-1. Doan, who scored his rookie league leading 25th goal of the year, was assisted by Colin Theisen and Steven Kampfer on the third period goal. It was the 15th assist of the year for the 12year-pro, and Roadrunners captain, Steven Kampfer.
The goal would be the only goal for the Roadrunners on Wednesday, and it would take Ontario just under ten minutes to retake the lead 2-1. Ontario would hold on to the 2-1 lead into the final minute of play when the Roadrunners would pull goalie Matthew Villalta in attempt to tie things up late. Ontario would score twice with an empty net bringing us to a 4-1 game.
