Tucson Roadrunners Road Ahead: Hockey In Hot Pink

Tucson Roadrunners Road Ahead: Hockey In Hot Pink

Upcoming Games (All times MST)

Saturday, February 26: Ontario at Tucson, 7:00 p.m.

Sunday, February 27: Ontario at Tucson, 3:00 p.m.

Who’s On The Schedule

The Roadrunners will have a week of practice before wrapping up their four-game home stand at the Tucson Arena Saturday and Sunday. Tucson will host the Ontario Reign for a pair of games as part of Roadrunners Fight Cancer Weekend February 26 and 27. The Roadrunners will wear their specialty hot pink jerseys for both matchups, with $2 Pink the Rink Lemonade available for purchase. The jerseys will be auctioned off live after Sunday’s game for Banner Health University of Arizona Cancer Center. Fans can purchase a Roadrunners Fight Cancer Ticket Package that includes four tickets and $20 in concessions vouchers for either game. For more information on this special weekend at the Tucson Arena and to purchase tickets, click HERE.

Fans Fill The Stands

The Roadrunners celebrated Kids Weekend at the Tucson Arena over their pair of games with the Henderson Silver Knights this past Saturday and Sunday. A crowd of 5,502 fans, the largest since November 9, 2019, came out to see the Roadrunners overcome a 3-2 deficit for their second-straight comeback win on home ice Saturday night. Mike Carcone buried the eventual game-winning goal with 15 seconds left on the clock, joining Jan Jenik (2g 1a), Matias Maccelli (1g 2a) and Doyle Somerby (2a) as players with multiple points in the victory. The first 1,500 kids 12 and under to Saturday’s game received free youth Kachina jerseys courtesy of the DentalPros, while all kids 12 and under got into Sunday’s matinee matchup for free with a paying adult.

Celebrating Black History

Tucson Roadrunners Forwards Boko Imama and Stephen Harper are auctioning off their game worn Kachina jerseys with all proceeds to benefit the Hockey Diversity Alliance as the organization and its players celebrate Black History Month. Bidding for the jerseys is underway HERE and the event will run through Monday, February 28 at 9 p.m. The jerseys are from this season and will be available to the winners on March 1. The mission of the Hockey Diversity Alliance is to eradicate racism and intolerance in hockey, and they are committed to inspiring a new and diverse generation of players and fans. For more information, visit their website at HockeyDiversityAlliance.org.

Teammates Supporting Teammates

During the weekend series against the Henderson Silver Knights, the Tucson Roadrunners players and staff sported t-shirts created in collaboration with forward Boko Imama and the Roadrunners organization. The shirt advocates for inclusion for everyone and an end to racism in and around the sport of hockey, with the shirt reading “Enough is Enough” on the front and “All for All for All” on the back. The shirts were worn by players during pregame and postgame workouts and by staff members at both games against the Silver Knights and were available for purchase for $25 with all proceeds going to the Hockey Diversity Alliance. A limited number of team signed t-shirts were also available for $50. T-Shirt orders and donations to the Hockey Diversity Alliance can still be placed through TucsonRoadrunners.com/HDA.

We’re On TV

The Roadrunners will be back on The CW Tucson in Southern Arizona on Sunday, February 27 when they take on the Ontario Reign. The game will mark the fifth televised broadcast on the season, as “The Voice of the Roadrunners” Adrian Denny will be joined by Brett Fera from the Arizona Daily Star. Ontario will be the opponent for a televised Roadrunners game for the first time since May 16, 2021, the regular-season finale of the 2020-2021 campaign.

Reign In The Forecast

The season series with the Ontario Reign has been full of scoring, both at even strength and on special teams. The Roadrunners set a season-high for goals scored in a game with an 8-4 win on November 12 over the Reign, the first meeting of the year. In five games against The Los Angeles Kings AHL affiliate this season, the Roadrunners have tallied nine power-play goals. Matias Maccelli, Jan Jenik and Mike Carcone each have a pair of goals while on the man-advantage against Ontario. Maccelli leads the team in scoring against the Reign this season with 13 points (4g 9a) over the five matchups, including a five-point performance and his first career AHL hat trick on November 12.

Productive Power-Play In The Old Pueblo

Tucson scored a pair of power-play goals in the third period of their 4-3 win over the Silver Knights on Saturday, February 19. The performance capped off a stretch of eight home games that saw the Roadrunners score 11 goals while on the man-advantage, including four games with multiple power-play strikes. In that same span, Tucson’s penalty-kill unit allowed only four goals in 30 opponent trips to the man-advantage.

Coyotes Add Vlad

The Arizona Coyotes announced Monday evening that they had recalled defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok from the Tucson Roadrunners. Kolyachonok had previously appeared in four games with the Coyotes from January 12 to 17 and made his NHL debut against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Gila River Arena. Arizona went 2-1-0-1 during the span with Kolyachonok in the roster, who was paired alongside fellow 20-year-old Victor Soderstrom. Kolyachonok picked up right where he left off when he returned to the Roadrunners on January 19, recording an assist in six-straight appearances as part of an overall seven-game streak. The stretch is tied for the longest point streak by a defenseman in Roadrunners franchise history.

Rinaldi Joins The Roster

Forward Anthony Rinaldi made his AHL debut with the Roadrunners in Saturday night’s series opener against the Henderson Silver Knights. The 21-year-old from Pierrefonds, Quebec, joined Tucson from the Greenville Swamp Rabbits of the ECHL, where he recorded 18 points (6g 12a) in 26 games this season. Rinaldi played for four seasons at Union College, the same school as Roadrunners Head Coach Jay Varady. The weekend saw Rinaldi play in both games, recording three shots on goal and an even plus/minus in Saturday’s 4-3 win.

Doyle Doubles Up

Defenseman Doyle Somerby recorded his first multiple-point performance of the season in Saturday’s contest with the Henderson Silver Knights. Somerby notched a pair of assists on back-to-back goals 3:43 apart in the second period. The 27-year-old has three assists in as many outings and has now appeared in more games with Tucson this season (15) than the Iowa Wild (14) after being acquired from Iowa on January 4.

Did You Know?

The Roadrunners 4-3 come-from-behind victory over the Henderson Silver Knights on Saturday, February 19 marked the fifth-straight home win where Tucson took the lead in the third period or later. Mike Carcone netted the game-winning goal with just 15 seconds remaining in regulation to complete the comeback from down 3-2 in the third period. Over the Roadrunners last five wins at the Tucson Arena, three have had the final lead change in the third period, one was decided in overtime, and another went to a shootout.

On The Air

The Tucson Roadrunners Happy Hour with Adrian Denny and Brett Fera goes live every Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Fox Sports 1450 AM and the iHeartRadio app. In addition to Roadrunners Happy Hour, the Tucson Roadrunners Insider Podcast is available every Sunday, where Adrian Denny and Jimmy Peebles talk most things Tucson Roadrunners. The weekly podcast can be found on the iHeartRadio app.

(Photo Credits: Kate Dibildox/Chris Hook)