The Tucson Roadrunners couldn’t replicate the magic of their Saturday night win, settling for a split with the Henderson Silver Knights.
Despite an early goal, Tucson (16-23-2-1) lost 4-1 to the Silver Knights on Sunday afternoon. The visitors scored three goals in the second and another in the third to get the win at Tucson Arena.
“I thought we had a good first and then we kinda let it slip away in the second,” said Roadrunners coach Jay Varady. “We were just behind the eight ball at that point.”
Tucson forward Matias Maccelli opened up the scoring 6:26 into first, assisted by center Jan Jenik and defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok.
“Tough game tonight, we started well in the first period, we played really well,” Maccelli said. “Then they got a couple a bounces and they got a couple goals and that’s why we lost the game.”
Henderson left wing Sven Baerstschi scored their third goal, giving him three in the two games in Tucson.
Maccelli picked up three points on Saturday, also scoring a goal. He’s had points on 16 of Tucson’s 22 goals this month.
“It’s going better, getting more comfortable playing here,” said the Turku, Finland, native.
Varady said rather than being concerned that the Roadrunners are too dependent on Maccelli, he’s excited about his development as a player.
“He’s a talented player, he’s found a way to be consistent, producing offensively,” Varady said. “In this league that’s a hard thing to do, we’ve seen a lot of good players come though here that haven’t been consistent as him in terms of producing points.”
Tucson outshot the Silver Knights 35-20 but was 0 for 5 on the power play after it scored on half of them on Saturday. Henderson (23-15-2-1) was 2 for 6 on the power play.
Attendance was 2,697 as the Roadrunners started their four-game homestead with a split against the Silver Knights, who are in fourth place in the Pacific Division.
The Roadrunners return to action this weekend when they host the Ontario Reign for a pair starting at Saturday at 7 p.m. The Reign are in second in the Pacific.
“For our group and where we’re at, we need to find ways to win games back to back,” Varady said. “We’re in a playoff race here and points are important and some how on a night like tonight you got to find a point, hopefully two points, we didn’t, so we gotta go back to the drawing board.”
Slap shots
- The Roadrunners will host Cancer Awareness Weekend in their upcoming two-game set against the Reign. Some money from ticket sales will go to the Arizona Cancer Society and Tucson will wear Cancer Awareness Jerseys that will be auctioned after the game with proceeds going to the Banner Health UA Cancer Center.
