Tucson Arena may be a little louder than usual Wednesday.
The Roadrunners host San Diego for a 10 a.m. start time in the team’s annual School Day Game.
School children from throughout Tucson will be attendance to take in the contest. Tucson is looking to win its third straight game against San Diego in five days.
The Roadrunners beat San Diego 5-3 Monday night in a chippy game.
“I think we’re playing well and we’re confident in our game,” Roadrunners forward Dylan Strome said. “We’re drawing penalties and our power play is doing good out there. We’ve got a good thing going and we’ve got to keep it going.”
Roadrunners head coach Mike Van Ryn said that the morning start time wouldn’t change anything with the team’s game preparation.
Tucson’s game plan has remained consistent throughout this away-home-home three-game series with San Diego.
“Most teams are playing their parent club’s system and the emphasis is on trying to execute that as well as you can,” Van Ryn said. “For us it will be that, and if we have to make some small tweaks here or there we have the green light to do that.”
Formation of a rivalry
How long does it take to create a rivalry?
The Roadrunners and Gulls are working to figure that out with each passing game.
The Pacific Division series is dubbed as the Border Cup, and there’s even a trophy that goes to the team with the better head-to-head record at season’s end.
San Diego got the upper hand in Year 1 of the series. The Gulls beat the Roadrunners in 10 of 12 meetings.
Tucson is faring much better this year. After dropping the first three games to San Diego this season, the Roadrunners have won the last four.
“It’s different because the players change so much in this league,” Van Ryn said. “I think the business people are maybe trying to create that rivalry for us.”
It’s true that Tucson and San Diego’s rosters have undergone plenty of upheaval in the last year.
Even so, the two teams seem to be buying into the emerging rivalry.
“Some of the older guys on each team are starting to get into it and starting to chirp a lot and that brings into the rivalry a lot (of emotion),” Strome said. “They’re obviously a great team, and other than theirs, our building probably the best building in the league to play in.”
