The Tucson Roadrunners snapped their cold spell at home with a 4-3 win over the Ontario Reign on Friday night.
The Roadrunners are on a season-high four game winning streak.
Goals by All-Stars Nick Merkley and Dylan Strome kept Tucson on pace with Ontario for most of the night before Ryan MacInnis and Tye McGinn netted third-period goals to give the Roadrunners the win.
“The boys are clicking and working hard and it’s getting us wins,” MacInnis said. “Toward the end there we started talking some more and getting more chances.”
The Roadrunners remained atop the American Hockey League’s Pacific Division standings with the win and moved to 4-1 against the Reign this season. The two teams face each other again Saturday night.
Merkley put Tucson on the board with an early first-period score, but Ontario responded with two goals of its own in the period to take a 2-1 advantage.
“We had two really poor days of practice this week and it carried over,” Roadrunners coach Mike Van Ryn said. “It took us a little bit to get going. We juggled the lines around a little bit and I thought we found some life.”
The pace of the game slowed for much of the second period. Then, with mere tenths of a second left on the clock, Strome scored a game-tying goal to make the score 2-2 heading into the final period.
Just two minutes and 18 seconds into the third period, MacInnis scored a go-ahead goal on an assist by McGinn.
McGinn would score Tucson’s fourth goal, giving the Roadrunners a cushion heading into the game’s final moments.
McGinn has earned points in four consecutive games.
A timeout by Ontario with just over a minute to go rejuvenated the Reign, who closed the deficit to 4-3 with 45 seconds remaining.
Roadrunners goalie Hunter Miska deflected a last-second Ontario offensive push to earn the win.
Miska moved to 9-3 on the year with the win.
Tucson Arena has been anything but friendly confines for the Roadrunners most of the winter. Tucson had dropped its past four home games.
“We lost four in a row at home and that’s just not good enough if we want to be a top team in this league,” MCGinn said. “I thought we came out hot and then tailed off in the end of the first period. But it was definitely a good second and third period and it was good to see.”
