The Tucson Roadrunners lost their fifth straight and dropped to .500 but their penalty kill shined.
The Colorado Eagles (20-11-2-0) secured a sweep of the two-game series with the Roadrunners (14-14-4-0) with a 6-1 win Saturday night in Tucson Arena.
Twenty penalties were called in all, including 13 on the Roadrunners.
Tucson defenseman Cam Dineen committed both penalties in the first period.
“Too many penalties on our behalf,” Dineen said. “Hard to get in a groove when we’re in the box and I had two in the beginning, so that’s on me.
“I think we just gotta stay a little more disciplined, I think that’ll solve some things but overall it’s not really good enough, not our identity.”
Roadrunners head coach Steve Potvin said the game was “disappointing, unacceptable, all of the above.”
Tucson killed eight of the nine Colorado power plays.
"That’s something we’ve been trying to key on but honestly we don’t need any more work on it,” Potvin said. “We fulfilled that obligation here tonight, we can’t take eight penalties a night and think we’re gonna win, it just puts too much stress and pressure on our goaltending and our defense.”
Colorado forward Jean-Luc Foudy scored 1:26 into the game. Eagles forward Sampo Ranta scored a power play goal about three minutes later and Foudy scored again with 1:44 left in the first.
After forward Bokondji Imama and defenseman Victor Soderstrom got three penalties at 10:54, the Roadrunners killed a two-minute 5-on-3 Colorado power play. Later in the period the Eagles had another, shorter, 5-on-3 power play that Tucson killed.
“I thought we did a good job. We didn’t really give up much, we stayed tight, we stayed compact and took away their scoring threats. And I think they only got two or three shot opportunities,” said Tucson defenseman Dysin Mayo about the two Eagle advantage power plays.
Imama got a 10 minute abuse of officials penalty along with his minor penalty that was part of the first 5-on-3. Then at 17:36 in the second Jean-Sebastien Dea took an abuse of the officials infraction.
“We gotta control our emotions better (and) lay off the refs. I mean, they’re not going to give us any better calls when we’re giving it to them,” Mayo said. “At the end of the day they’re human too so we just gotta.”
Colorado outshot Tucson 38-27. The Roadrunners were 0-for-5 themselves on the power play.
At 12:10 in the third, the Eagles added a fourth goal when forward Spencer Smallman lit the lamp.
Tucson responded with a score from left wing Travis Barron 23 seconds later, assisted by forward Hudson Elynuik and Mayo.
Three minutes after that Colorado defenseman Luke Martin scored his first AHL goal. Colorado added an empty net goal with 10 seconds left.
On Tuesday the Milwaukee Admirals (19-11-0-2) sail into town for a two-game series. The Admirals are the American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL's Nashville Predators.
Slap shots
- On Saturday the Coyotes sent forward Michael Carcone back to Tucson after six games in the NHL. Carcone had two goals for Arizona over that span.
“I thought he was an effective piece,” Potvin said about Carcone’s most recent NHL stint. “I mean he can skate at that level and he knows that he can score at that level now too, I thought he did as well as he possible could during his time.”
Going into Saturday’s games, Carcone was still led the AHL in points with 42. - The attendance Saturday in Tucson Arena was 4,057. It was the second straight night Roadrunners drew more than 3,000.
Roadrunners goalie Ivan Prosvetov works with junior hockey players during a practice session at the Tucson Convention Center. Video Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star 2022
