Tucson Roadrunners take charge of first-round series with rout of San Jose

On a night when fans and opponent alike were decked out in white, the Tucson Roadrunners provided plenty of color.

The Roadrunners defeated San Jose 6-0 Wednesday night in the franchise’s first-ever home playoff game at Tucson Arena.

Tucson leads the opening round of the Calder Cup best-of-five series 2-1 and can win the series with a victory Friday in Game 4.

“We were opportunistic,” Roadrunners head coach Mike Van Ryn said. “We scored when we had chances. We had a lot of good efforts from a lot of guys. In San Jose, we had maybe half the team going while the other half wasn’t playing their best. Tonight everybody showed up and everybody contributed.”

All fans in attendance Wednesday were given white T-shirts as part of a white-out that the team is putting on throughout the playoffs.

Van Ryn credited the whiteout for adding a brightness to the arena which the team fed off.

Six Roadrunners scored, starting with Michael Bunting, who gave Tucson an early 1-0 lead on a goal 2 1/2 minutes into the first period. Dylan Strome provided the assist.

Kyle Capobianco thought he had given Tucson a 2-0 advantage with a score midway through the period, but the goal was called off due to goalie interference by Bunting.

A power-play goal by Lawson Crouse three minutes later did count, giving Tucson a 2-0 lead. Strome and Carter Camper were credited with the assist.

The Barracuda needed nearly 16 minutes to get off its first goal, which deflected off the goalpost and into the possession of Tucson’s Lane Pederson.

“Not letting them get into the zone was the biggest thing,” Strome said. “Our defense was great at denials tonight. When we’re not letting them into their zone it’s hard for them to get shots like that.

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Pederson broke away for a goal on the opposite end, giving the Roadrunners a 3-0 lead with 3:44 left in the period. Assists went to Andrew Campbell and Trevor Cheek.

Tucson added to its lead when Mike Sislo scored seven minutes into the second period, assisted by Strome and Dakota Mermis.

The Roadrunners took the lead to 5-0 when Campbell netted a deflected shot into the goal with 5:41 remaining in the second period.

San Jose removed Antoine Bibeau after the fifth goal and replaced him with Stephon Williams.

Tucson’s Mario Kempe scored 53 seconds into the third period on assists by Crouse and Mermis.

Crouse, Camper, and Kempe started on the front line for Tucson while Adin Hill got the nod at goalie.

Hill held off a Barracuda offense that floundered in Game 3 after controlling the puck for most of Games 1 and 2 in San Jose.

“We played an unbelievable game I thought,” Hill said. “We played a full 60 minutes, we played together as a group. We did what we talked about this week in practice.”

Hill credited the defense’s box outs for keeping San Jose from gaining many grade-A scoring chances.

A San Jose win Friday night would force a winner-take-all Game 5 Saturday night at Tucson Arena.