The Tucson Roadrunners started their four-game road trip by beating the Iowa Wild 5-4 on Tuesday night.
The Roadrunners’ seventh win in nine games was good for their 72nd point and moved them to within a point of the final playoff spot in the American Hockey League's Pacific Division, behind the Colorado Eagles and San Diego Gulls.
Tucson is currently riding a 7-1-0-1 streak.
Tucson scored within the opening three minutes for the third consecutive game, this time off the stick of Hudson Fasching. He had two goals and an assist in the Roadrunners’ win Saturday night.
Matteo Gennaro, Trevor Cheek and Michael Bunting all scored to put Tucson ahead 5-1. The Wild stormed back with three goals in the third period, but Roadrunners goaltender Adin Hill fended off 23 of Iowa’s 27 shots for his 15th win of the season.
"It was pretty close at the end there, they caught us by surprise in the third," said Roadrunners forward Michael Chaput. "We should have expected it, we kind of laid back a bit and they took it to us, but we got the win."
Tucson (32-23-5-3) will play Iowa (34-25-7-5) again at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
