The Tucson Roadrunners’ three-game winning streak ended Saturday night but they rallied to extend their points streak.
Tucson (3-2-1-0) lost in overtime 3-2 to the San Diego Gulls (3-3-1-0) to settle for a split in the series. However, with the tie after regulation, the Roadrunners extended their streak of games with at least a point to four.
Tucson rallied twice but lost in overtime when San Diego forward Nico Myatovic scored his fourth goal of the season and second of the night.
It was the Roadrunners’ first overtime of the season.
“I think they played a little bit more with an edge, the edge I don’t think their team thought they had the night before,” said Tucson head coach Steve Potvin. “I think we didn’t capitalize in some pretty good opportunities, we were alone with the goalie, I think three times, we weren’t able to make hay on it.
“So, that’s how the game goes, I think you have to develop a certain psychology in this game where you’ve got to have a real strong resilience of it, you’re able to pour emotion forward and felt like our emotion (Saturday) night pushed us backwards.”
Still, the Roadrunners earned three of the four possible points in the two-game series. As of Sunday morning, Tucson sits in third in the Pacific Division with seven points, the 13th most in the 32-team league and sixth best in the Western Conference.
The AHL awards two points for wins, one point for overtime or shootout losses and no points for regulation losses.
“I think they’re starting to understand the level of intensity that they need behind their structure and even the mindset to follow it,” Potvin said about the streak. “You wear one jersey and have the structure all in common so using that as our guiding point is important. I think they understand that we’re going to be able to build speed from it and we’re going to be able to play some shut down minutes and being able to break the opponent but you have to be able to commit to it and understand it.”
San Diego opened the scoring a minute and 13 seconds into the game with a goal from Myatovic. The Gulls were shut out on Friday.
Defenseman Tomas Lavoie scored the equalizer just before the first intermission. Defenseman Gregor Biber and forward Austin Poganski were credited with assists.
Lavoie said the transition to the AHL has gone pretty well for him.
“Had a great camp back in Utah, had a great couple of practices before I seen the start here,” the rookie said. “So I was ready for it and I adjusted pretty well, I think and I love the way I played and the team played.”
The Gulls took the lead back with 13:26 left in the second period with a goal from forward Matthew Phillips.
With 11:28 left, forward Yegor Borikov tied it up for Tucson on a power play with assists from forwards Ben McCartney and Tij Iginla.
Tucson goalie Jaxson Stauber (1-1-1) made 24 saves.
Last season, the Roadrunners played in 23 overtime games, the third most in the league, going 13-0-10. Tucson tailed a franchise-record 11 OT wins, the second most in the league and 13 wins in overtime or shootouts, tied for the most in the AHL.
Tucson won the series opener 3-0 on Friday night as goalie Michael Hrabal recorded his first professional shut out. Forwards McCartney, Cameron Hebig and Brandon Tanev scored the goals for the Roadrunners.
Hrabal’s shut out came in his eighth professional start (the rookie played a few games for Tucson last year after the college season). He made 31 saves.
The AHL awarded Hrabal the league’s first star of the night award.
Hrabal (2-1) has a 2.05 goals against average and a .931 save percentage this season. Last year in five games after he left UMass, he had a 2.96 GAA an .897 save percentage.
“It’s great, it’s great, it’s awesome; we had pretty good goaltending from the start of the season from both players,” Potvin said about his shut out. “Great to see him get his shut out, it’s well deserved, it’s well earned, I thought he made some pretty spectacular saves in key, critical moments and they found themselves alone with him a couple times, so it was great to see.”
Up next for the Roadrunners is a five-game road trip to Henderson (Nev.), Coachella Valley (Thousand Palms, Calif.), and Ontario (Calif.), starting on Friday. Tucson’s next home game is Nov. 6 when the Coachella Valley (Seattle Kraken affiliate) come to town.
After opening the season 0-2 at home, Tucson went on a road trip to San Jose, had time to do team bonding exercises and since then they haven’t lost a game in regulation.
Lavoie said the Roadrunners have great chemistry.
“It was great, I mean we that there a little early so, we had time to bond together…as a team,” Lavoie said about the San Jose trip.
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