A “blue-collar” kind of night. A day after suffering one of the worst losses in team history, that’s what the Tucson Roadrunners needed — and, according to Tucson’s own scoring leaders, it’s exactly what they got.
“It was a blue-collar effort tonight, just what we were looking for,” Tucson center David Ullstrom said after the Roadrunners (10-5-0-1) scratched, clawed and stood tall to churn out a 3-2 win over the Stockton Heat (9-8-1-0) on Wednesday night at Tucson Arena.
The win moved the Roadrunners back into a first-place tie with the San Jose Barracuda atop the American Hockey League’s Pacific Division. Tucson and San Jose both have 21 points, although Tucson has played two more games so far this season.
“We’re a resilient team. We’re a young team. And we’re just going to keep coming in waves when we’re playing the right way,” said Roadrunners winger Conor Garland, who scored a pair of second-period goals just 38 seconds apart and with the man advantage. “That was one of those nights tonight.”
The win came just one night after the Roadrunners were ice cold in virtually all facets against the same Stockton squad. Tuesday’s 8-2 drubbing was one of the most lopsided defeats in the three-season history of the Roadrunners franchise in Tucson, and even that came after a loss to the Heat — 3-1, in Stockton — just three days earlier.
For a while, it looked like the Heat might just end up piling on again Wednesday. Stockton took a 1-0 lead on a Buddy Robinson goal into the first intermission, and then went up 2-0 off the stick of Curtis Lazar about eight minutes into the second period.
But Tucson snapped back 61 seconds later. Laurent Dauphin’s second goal of the season for the Roadrunners cut the Stockton lead to 2-1. After a pair of Garland power-play goals, Tucson had a 3-2 lead less than three minutes later that it would ride to the finish.
The goals were Garland’s fifth and sixth of the season, with Ullstrom tallying assists on both.
“We won the special teams game. I thought our power play was great, our penalty game was great,” Tucson head coach Jay Varady said.
Tucson avoided its first three-game skid of the season and stopped Stockton’s four-game win streak in its tracks.
Goaltender Adin Hill made his return to the Tucson lineup Tuesday after nearly a four-week hiatus with a lower-body injury. That — all part of that 8-2 loss — didn’t quite go as planned, with Hill initially pulled in the first period only to return late in the second to close out the blowout loss.
On Wednesday, Hill hunkered down after the Roadrunners fell behind, stopping 25 of 27 shots including all 10 he faced in the third period.
“We were excited to get (Hill) back last night, and it didn’t end up well for us as a team,” Garland said. “But he really wanted a big game tonight, and he paid huge for us. After those two goals, they didn’t get a sniff. So a lot of credit goes to him.”
Added Varady: “Tonight (Hill) got back on it and did a great job for us, especially in key times. The last little bit there with the (Stockton) goalie pulled, I thought he was fantastic.”
Trevor Murphy also added a pair of helpers for Tucson, supporting Dauphin’s goal and Garland’s second, while Kyle Capobianco and Michael Bunting each had assists, too.
Next up, the Roadrunners fly out west Thanksgiving Day for a pair this weekend — first at Bakersfield on Saturday, then at Ontario on Sunday. The Roadrunners are on the road next weekend, too — again at Ontario on Dec. 2 and then Dec. 3 at San Diego. Tucson is back home at the Tucson Arena from Dec. 7-8 against Ontario.
