Adin Hill and Hunter Miska each putting on a show in net at Tucson Arena is hardly unique.
It just hasn’t happened in the same game before.
Playing against each other for the first time — the two were arguably co-No. 1 goaltenders for the Tucson Roadrunners the past two seasons — the duo combined to stop 71 of 74 shots in a tightly-contested 2-1 victory for the Roadrunners (17-5-0-0) over the visiting Colorado Eagles (10-10-1-0) Wednesday night.
Miska, the former Roadrunners’ netminder, turned away 39 of 40 Tucson shots Wednesday. But it was Hill, his close friend and former Roadrunners’ roadtrip roommate, who was just a slight step better — statistically speaking, at least. Hill gave up just the lone goal, stopping 33 shots along the way, to give the Roadrunners two wins in two nights over the visiting Eagles.
Miska was named the game’s third star, while Hill was honored as the first star during postgame festivities.
“It was cool to see Hunter. He’s a great guy and a great goalie,” Hill said. “It was great to play against him and hopefully it will happen a few more times this year.”
There was even a moment in the third period where players from both teams started skirmishing not far from the Tucson bench. With the referees and linesmen cleaning up the mess, Hill and Miska decided to just shoot the puck back and forth at each other length of the ice like old pals trying to kill some time.
“I was really hoping coming into the week that he and I were going to have a goalie battle together,” Miska said. “It was super fun to play against him, but tough to get the two points taken away from us. I thought we played a pretty good game.”
Tucson coach Jay Varady said that in addition being impressed by what his own goaltender did tonight in helping Tucson win its club-record sixth straight home game, he wasn’t surprised by Miska’s performance in the slightest; the Roadrunners, after all, have seen that up close for some time now, he added.
“Yeah, that was a weird dynamic out there — obviously two guys that have won lots of games here in this arena,” Varady said of the pair, who combined for 137 appearances and 67 wins in net the previous two seasons. “I thought Miska played a really good game tonight. He made a lot of great saves. We know he can do that. We’ve seen it here before.
“And I thought Hiller on our side did a great job as well,” Varady added. “He faced some odd-man situations early in the first there, and he was able to come up with some big saves for us coming down the stretch.”
The game’s second star, Brayden Burke, provided all the scoring Tucson would ultimately need, notching both Tucson goals thanks to a pair of assists from Beau Bennett and one apiece from Nick Merkley and Andy Miele.
Burke is now at 10 goals on the season in 22 games, after scoring 13 in 67 appearances as a rookie last season. Burke’s second goal came on the power-play, upping his league-lead in that category to eight on the season.
Across the American Hockey League, and the continent, the Rochester Americans defeated the Toronto Marlies, 4-0, Wednesday night. The connection to Tucson: that coupled with the Roadrunners’ win mean Tucson ended the night with the AHL’s top overall record after roughly one-third of the season gone.
“Coming in to the start of the year, everyone around this dressing room knew we had a pretty solid team. And we knew that if we played the right way … then we’re going to start off good,” Burke said. “I don’t know if we thought we’d start off this well, but we just want to keep doing what we’re doing and not focus too much on the standings, but focus on the next game.”
Tucson will travel to Iowa next, facing the Wild at 6 p.m. Saturday. The four-game roadtrip will take the Roadrunners to Des Moines for two, then San Antonio and Frisco, Texas.
The Roadrunners return home Dec. 20 to face the Ontario Reign. That’s the first of seven home games over a 15-day stretch overlapping the calendar flipping to the new year.
