Roadrunners G Matthew Villalta relishing 1st All-Star nod, excited to wear 'sick' Kachina jersey at AHL event

The Tucson Roadrunners’ first all-star goalie Matthew Villalta went from somewhat of an afterthought in the Los Angeles Kings organization to one of the best netminders in the American Hockey League.

Villalta will represent Tucson at the AHL All-Star Classic this weekend in San Jose. The action starts with the AHL All-Star Skills Competition on Sunday at 6 p.m. and then the 3-on-3 All-Star tournament Monday starting at 7 p.m. Broadcasts of both events can be viewed at AHLtv.com (free) or on NHL Network (Ch. 310 on Cox; 279 on Comcast; 215 on DirecTV; 157 on Dish).

The Godfrey, Ontario, native joined Tucson after four seasons with the Ontario Reign. Originally expected to be a backup to Ivan Prosvetov, Villalta (21-10-1) now leads the AHL in wins, minutes and saves.

Roadrunners forward Josh Doan is also going to San Jose this weekend, the league announced Friday. Doan is an All-Star in his first full professional season.

Villalta appeared on the Arizona Daily Star’s “Wildcast” podcast this week with Star sports editor Brett Fera and Roadrunners reporter James Kelley. Audio of the full interview is available via Spotify or Apple Podcasts, or watch at Tucson.com/Wildcats.

Here’s what Villalta had to say:

What have the last few months been like for you with changing teams and then earning an all-star selection?

A: Honestly, it’s been awesome, it’s been a lot of fun, probably one of the most fun years I’ve had playing hockey and that just goes to show how good of a group we have here in Tucson.

“I didn’t really know what it was gonna be like coming in to a new team and didn’t really know what to expect but thankfully in my last four years I’ve played Tucson quite a bit and I played some of these guys in juniors so just knowing some guys from playing against them there’s a little bit of familiarly there. So that definitely made it a lot easier and it’s been a great experience so far. Tucson, the city, is an unbelievable place. I got to get out and tour around and check out some new restaurants, try out some new food that I haven’t really tried in the past, so it’s just fun to go do those things with all the fellas and so far it’s been great and we’ve been winning games so that’s even better.”

We heard that you got have a little bit of a say in what cool Roadrunners jersey you get to wear, why did you pick that one?

A: “Obviously, we have some great jerseys here in Tucson. I think they’re one of the best in the American Hockey League to be honest with ya. The first time I got to see our Kachina sweaters, I was like, “these things are sick” and obviously going to an event like this I get to show off a cool jersey like that. I went up to our equipment manager E (Eric Bechtol) and I was like “Hey E, is there any chance I can wear the kachina jersey at the All-Star Game” and thankfully he was able to pull some strings, and I’ll be rocking that.

“So obviously very excited. It’s a beautiful jersey, and I think it’s gonna be a cool thing to wear and kinda put it on display for the Roadrunners and hopefully everyone enjoys it who comes to the event and watches it on TV.”

Do the goalies participate in all the skills competition events, or do you pick a couple?

A: “They haven’t said anything about the event, so I’m not too sure which ones I’ll be doing. To be quite frank with ya, I’m not too sure, I know there’s probably a break away, like a shoot out competition. Hopefully there’s like an empty net one though, you gotta hit the empty net, get a couple points. I like playing the puck so that would be fun.”

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That would be a really fun one for goalies.

A: I remember seeing Mike Smith when he went to the NHL All-Star Game when he was with (the Arizona Coyotes) and they had the one where the had the big like the whole net was covered off and they had that little square in the middle that I think he hit on the first shot. So I think something like that would be pretty cool, but honestly, I’m not too sure about the plan of what events I’ll be doing or what events we got going on, but whatever they decide to throw me in, I’ll give ‘er my best and we’ll see how she goes.

What do you think the 3-on-3 tournament is gonna be like?

A: (The) 3-on-3’s always fun. I imagine an event like this will probably be a bit more relaxed so you might see some more of the skillset of the players coming out, maybe some 2-on-0s, 3-on-0s and you never know, I might be stacking the pads out there, we’ll see (laughs) what goes on. But I imagine it’s probably gonna be a fun game, a lot of action back and forth, and yeah, it should be very fun for the fans to watch, and it should be entertaining.

You were on Ontario when Martin Frk went to the (2020 AHL All-Star Classic) and set AHL and NHL record with a 109 miles per hour blast, you sat in front of one of those in practice or warm ups?

A: Yeah, my first year, actually. My goalie partner was Cal Petersen, so Cal obviously made the All-Star Game that year too and luckily enough it was (in) Ontario and so I went down to Ontario with my goalie coach at the time, Matt Millar, just to check it out and watch Cal and Marty Frk did the thing out there. I got to see that shot in person, which was pretty nuts, but going back to my first year, obviously Cal was the man in net and I was a rookie. We had power play at the start of practice, and usually so Cal would be doing his warm-up and I just go in the net and as the young guy you gotta get those reps in and put your time in. I remember Marty Frk being on my right side, right at the top of the circle and he was a one-timer guy. And I just remember him winding up and I didn’t even go down, just high riser, straight at my, right at my cage and it wrapped my cage right around the cheekbone. And it was crazy.

“That guy can rip a puck, that’s for sure. But a lot of the time, we would kinda make a business decision of not going down when he’s shooting the puck, so kinda avoid getting hurt from him, but definitely very cool to see that in person and get to see Frkie does what he does so well.