Game #68: Tucson Roadrunners (4) at Henderson Silver Knights (5) (SO)

SOG: TUC (46) – HSK (29)

PP: TUC (0/3) – HSK (0/3)

TUCSON SCORING: Ryan McGregor (11, 12), Curtis Douglas (7), Adam Cracknell (19)

HENDERSON SCORING: Brandon Hickey (1), Colt Conrad (4), Sakari Manninen (11), Kaedan Korczak (4)

ROADRUNNERS FORCE SHOOTOUT WITH THREE UNANSWERED GOALS AGAINST HENDERSON SILVER KNIGHTS

Henderson, Nevada – The Tucson Roadrunners moved one point closer to clinching a playoff berth Wednesday night with a 5-4 shootout loss to the Henderson Silver Knights. The Roadrunners closed out regulation with three unanswered goals after falling behind 4-1 in the first period, while holding the Silver Knights scoreless over the final 43:14 of the contest. Ryan McGregor scored the first and last goals for the Tucson for his first multi-goal game of the season, while David Tendeck was in net from the start of the second period and stopped all 19 shots faced. The Roadrunners finished their final road trip of the season that featured six games in four cities in the span of just 14 days with a 3-1-1-1 record, and will head home to open a two-game series with the Texas Stars on Friday, April 7 at 7:00 p.m. MST. The standings point in Wednesday’s shootout loss means Tucson can clinch a playoff berth as soon as Friday night with a win and a San Jose Barracuda regulation loss.

YA GOTTA SEE IT

Roadrunners forward Ryan McGregor scored the game-tying goal with 8:19 remaining regulation on Wednesday night in Henderson, eventually sending the contest to a shootout where Tucson earned a crucial standings point against the Silver Knights. The goal was McGregor’s second of the game after putting the Roadrunners on the board with 10:07 gone by in the first period, just 1:37 after the Silver Knights opened the scoring with a 1-0 lead. The effort marked the first two-goal performance of the season for McGregor, and the first since the 24-year-old recorded two goals and an assist in his rookie campaign with Tucson on March 20, 2021.

DON’T OVERLOOK IT

THE CARCONE SHOW GOES ON – Roadrunners forward Mike Carcone added another Roadrunners team record to his MVP resume Wednesday night, recording an assist on Ryan McGregor’s first-period goal for the most assists in a single season in Tucson franchise history with 49. Carcone became the first player in the American Hockey League to reach 80 total points on the season, retaking the league’s scoring lead from Syracuse Crunch forward Alex Barré-Boulet after he had matched Carcone at 79 points earlier on Wednesday. The 26-year-old finished Tucson’s six-game road trip with ten total points (4g 6a) and four consecutive multiple-point performances from March 25 to March 31. #CarconeMVP.

PHOTO OF THE GAME

Tucson netminder David Tendeck entered Wednesday’s game at the start of the second period with the Roadrunners trailing the Silver Knights 4-1 and proceeded to shut out Henderson for the remainder of regulation, as well as through the ensuing five-minute overtime period with Tucson and the Silver Knights even at 4-4. After stopping all 19 shots faced since entering the game, Tendeck and the Roadrunners went to a shootout for the first time in his AHL career. The 23-year-old denied two of the three Henderson shootout attempts he faced as Tucson fell by a final score of 5-4 to close out the road trip that saw Tendeck make 81 of 84 total saves across three outings.

THEY SAID IT

“We had our guys going after being down [4-1], and I think it attests to the character of our group. We really battled back and deserved a better outcome, but those first few minutes hurt us.”

Roadrunners Forward Curtis Douglas on Tucson’s energy and effort leading to overcoming a three-goal deficit and forcing a shootout Wednesday night against the Silver Knights. Douglas lit the lamp early in the second period to cut Henderson’s lead to 4-2.

THE RUNDOWN

The Silver Knights opened the scoring with 8:30 gone by in the first period, with a goal scored by defenseman Brandon Hickey for a 1-0 Henderson lead. The Roadrunners answered back within 97 seconds to tie the game at 1-1, as forward Ryan McGregor took a setup pass from Mike Carcone and buried his first of two goals on the game. Henderson regained their advantage at 2-1 just 32 seconds later, before adding another pair of goals over the final 8:01 of the opening period to lead Tucson by a count of 4-1 after 20 minutes of play. Trailing by three, the Roadrunners came out for the middle frame with goaltender David Tendeck in net for his third outing on the road trip and began the period with an early goal by forward Curtis Douglas. Douglas finished off a second chance for his seventh goal of the season, bringing Tucson back to within two of the Silver Knights at 4-2 with assists from Cam Hebig and Cam Crotty. The Roadrunners added a second goal in the frame by Captain Adam Cracknell, who lit the lamp for the 19th time on the year just past the midway point of the second period to make it a one-goal game for the first time since the opening 11:59 of the contest. The goal was Cracknell’s 48th point of the year, surpassing his total from last season in Bakersfield and now trails his AHL career high from 2017-2018 (51) by just three points. Linemates Josh Doan and Boko Imama registered assists on the score, giving Doan his third career AHL point and Imama a new single-season career high of 15 total points (5g 10a). Tucson’s penalty-kill denied a pair of Silver Knights power-plays following the Cracknell goal, sending the Roadrunners to the final 20 minutes of play down by one at 4-3. The Roadrunners fended off a third-straight Henderson man-advantage with 11:30 gone by in the third period, allowing forward Ryan McGregor to fly out of the penalty box and score on a tough angle shot to tie the game at 4-4 with 8:19 left in regulation. Tucson and Henderson and scoreless for the remainder of regulation, sending the Roadrunners to overtime for the fourth time in five games tied at 4-4. After a scoreless five minutes of three-on-three hockey, Tucson and Henderson went to a shootout still knotted at four. Roadrunners goaltender David Tendeck stopped two of three Silver Knights attempts in his first career AHL shootout, but Henderson’s Jordan Papirny went a perfect three-for-three against Tucson to hand the Roadrunners their first shootout loss of the season.

(Photo Credits: Henderson Silver Knights)