Goalie Matthew Villalta is moving up Tucson Roadrunners' career lists

Tucson Roadrunners goalie Matthew Villalta is off to a fast start and poised to rewrite some franchise records.

Last week in Tucson’s 3-0 win over the Iowa Wild, Villalta recorded his eighth shutout, which puts him two shy of the Roadrunners record set by current Vegas Golden Knight Adin Hill. He’s also one win behind Ivan Prosvetov for second all-time in team history (54).

He wasn’t aware he was that high up on the charts.

“Obviously, there’s been a lot of great goaltenders in Tucson Roadrunners history since they’ve been here, a lot of high-quality goaltenders,” Villalta said. “So it’s pretty cool but I’m not the only guy on the ice, it’s not a one-man sport, there’s five guys in front of me at all times on the ice and my teammates over my past three years have been a big piece to that puzzle, in a sense.

“So I give all the credit to the boys and I’m just lucky and thankful to be a part of a great organization.”

The Roadrunners (4-4-2-0) host the Coachella Valley Firebirds (3-4-1-0) in a two-game series starting on Friday. The Firebirds are the AHL affiliate of the Seattle Kraken.

Villalta made 19 saves against the Wild to win the first star award.

“I thought he was really good, you can see his game shine through,” said Tucson head coach Steve Potvin. “There’s some things that he’s working on and you can you can see him, he’s over the top of the puck, he’s really calm, he’s moving the puck the right way and he’s not coming out of his structure to do what he’s used to.

“He’s standing in his game and he has a plan and he’s executing,” he added. “So it’s really nice to see.”

In the Roadrunners’ 2-0 loss to the Manitoba Moose in his last home start on Oct. 28, Villalta made 49 saves. That performance was the most in the AHL this season, as of press time, and one shy of the franchise record set by Marek Langhamer against Ontario on Mar. 11, 2017.

As of press time, his performance against the Moose was the most saves in a third period (21) and second most in a second period (18).

“For myself personally, I love games like that, it’s just constant action, keeps you in at 24/7, and I feel like when I run hotter, I think I play better, and it’s just kind of an easy game to stay in,” Villalta said. “I wasn’t really paying attention to the shot clock, to be honest or like the whole clock, in general. I didn’t even really look at it much and then you peek up there and there’s like 38 or whatever on it and then you peek up again, they got like 45 and then eventually it got up to 50, but those are just fun games to be a part of, just in there doing my thing, having fun and keeping the puck out of that.

“Obviously, we didn’t get the result we wanted that night, but there’s learning in every game,” he added. “So we can always take the positives and move forward and the things that we can work on, move forward with that and we clean those things up.”

Villalta (4-1-1) has a 2.48 goals against average and a .916 save percentage this year.

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“He’s ripe right now, he’s been in the oven a long time,” Potvin said. “He’s been baking and it’s a natural progression at this stage of his career to be where he is and he’s got his eyes wide open and like I said, he’s executing his plan, which is really great to see.”

During the offseason, Villalta worked with Vince Lodato, the Utah Mammoth’s director of mental wellness and player performance and with Jeff Hill, Utah’s goaltender development coach. With Hill, Villalta worked on simplifying his game, making it more predictable for himself, fine-tuning and being consistent.

“I changed some things this summer,” Villalta said. “I think the biggest thing was working with a mental performance coach, so very lucky to have Vince Lodato here with Utah. “I know there’s a lot, kind of a very broad term, the mental part of the game, but just finding ways to make it relatable to me that helps me stay in the moment — you’re not getting too high, you’re not getting too low.”

The Los Angeles Kings selected Villalta in the third round of the 2017 draft, and he spent four seasons playing for their AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign.

Potvin said it’s really cool to possibly see Villalta achieve those milestones in the Roadrunners’ 10th season.

“I’m glad that he’s with us and not with Ontario, I’ll tell you that, you don’t want him setting records over there,” Potvin said. “But we’re proud of him and he’s a guy that is easy to get behind and he just draws a lot of good energy from the team.”

Slapshots

– Tucson right wing Austin Poganski scored the Roadrunners’ third goal in their 3-0 win over Iowa last week. It was his 70th career regular-season AHL goal and 200th career regular-season AHL point. Tucson’s captain has 79 points and 33 points since joining the Roadrunners in 2023.

– Roadrunners defenseman Kevin Connauton played his 450th AHL regular-season game against the Wild. He has played in 33 AHL playoff games, too.

{span style=”box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;”}– Dusk Music Festival and the Roadrunners are offering a buy-one, get-one-free ticket deal for Friday’s game, which will feature music from Dusk.

– Saturday’s game is Military Appreciation Night.

– On Saturday, the Roadrunners will debut their new black alternate jerseys that feature the original logo.