Lane Pederson and Michael Bunting after a Roadrunners goal on Wednesday.
Source: Tucson Roadrunners
Wednesday night and Friday night in their first two home playoff games in team history, the Tucson Roadrunners won 6-0 and 3-0. With the pair of wins, the Roadrunners `won their first round series against the San Jose Barracuda three games to one.
Roadrunners starting goaltender, Adin Hill was outstanding, stopping all 21 and 25 shots he faced on Wednesday night and Friday night respectively. Dylan Strome led the way for Tucson offensively, having three assists Wednesday and added two more on Friday.
After getting outplayed in games one and two in San Jose, the Roadrunners responded strongly in games three and four on home ice. They outshot San Jose by a 23-21 margin on Wednesday and 34-25 on Friday. The Roadrunners series win was the first series win by an Arizona Coyotes affiliate in the Calder Cup Playoffs since 2003.
Up next are the Texas Stars, AHL affiliate of the Dallas Stars, who won their first round series against the Ontario Reign 3-1. As the top seed in the Western Conference, Tucson will once again have home ice advantage against Texas in the second round best-of-seven series. Unlike the first round, where the Roadrunners were able to choose the format of the series, the second round series will follow an AHL standard 2-3-2 format.
Although they already won the regular season Pacific Division title, the Roadrunners have the chance to capture the 2017-18 Pacific Division Championship if they win the series and advance to the Western Conference Final. Game one will be played here in Tucson on Wednesday, May 2nd.
Tucson played very well against Texas this year, going 3-1-0 this year against the Stars in head-to-head matchups. If the regular season is any indicator, the Roadrunners could be one step closer to their first Calder Cup before we know it.
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