The Tucson Roadrunners and San Antonio Rampage picked things up Friday night right where the two teams left off a month ago.
Tucson picked up its third straight 2-1 overtime win over San Antonio, this one coming on the Roadrunners’ home ice at Tucson Arena.
The Roadrunners scored the game-winner two minutes into overtime on a shot by Laurent Dauphin deflected off of Mike Sislo.
“We had the puck in the neutral zone and I was skating back to our own end and I kicked out to Dauphin,” Sislo said. “He got a good shot on net and the puck just bounced. I don’t know if it hit me or hit their ‘d’ but we’ll take it.”
Sislo was officially credited with the goal with assists to Dauphin and Dysin Mayo.
Roadrunners head coach Mike Van Ryn credited San Antonio’s defense for holding Tucson’s offense in check for the third straight meeting, but also credited his team’s own fatigue for the low scoring affair.
“I thought the first period was okay, the second was flat, and we looked a little tired in the third to be honest,” Van Ryn said. “We didn’t have the pace that we want to play with at least. A few too many passengers again.”
The Roadrunners benefited from another strong outing from goalie Adin Hill. Hill saved 31 of 32 shots on goal.
It was Hill’s second straight one-goal allowed performance against the Rampage.
“Your job doesn’t change (in low scoring games),” Hill said. “You want to stop the puck and get the win at the end of the night.”
Tucson got off to a positive start when Lane Pederson put the Roadrunners up 1-0 with 4:05 remaining in the first period on an assist by Dauphin.
It was Pederson’s 10th goal of the season.
“It wasn’t pretty tonight,” Pederson said. “We’ll try to clean that up. I think we took strides in the right direction but tonight we kind got away from the game plan.”
The Rampage tied the game with a score midway through the second period.
The Roadrunners were outshot 32-30 on the night. San Antonio entered the contest on its ninth game of a 12-game road trip. The Rampage were without leading scorer Rocco Grimaldi.
“They’re a good team who play hard,” Sislo said. “They play 60 minute games. We definitely didn’t have our best tonight but we have to play if we want a good result tomorrow.”
