Led by a hat trick from forward Laurent Dauphin, the Tucson Roadrunners beat the Bakersfield Condors again.
The Roadrunners (3-1-0-0) swept the weekend series with the Condors with a second straight 5-3 win on Sunday afternoon at Tucson Arena.
“I think Bakersfield came out really hungry, determined, obviously they weren’t happy with the narrative last night and they came out pretty hard,” said Roadrunners head coach Steve Potvin. “So we had to weather the storm and I’m happy for out guys, they did that.”
At 16:12 of the first period, Roadrunners forward Hudson Elynuik scored, assisted by forward Bokondji Imama. A little over a minute later Tucson center Jean-Sebastien Dea scored a power-play goal with assists from forward Michael Carcone and Dauphin.
After the Condors (2-2-1-0) made it 2-1, Dauphin scored, assisted by forwards Jan Jenik and Adam Cracknell.
The Roadrunners’ first 10 goals of the year were scored by different players. Dea was the first to score his second.
“It’s nice when everybody’s involved and it just gets people confidence and helps the team at the same time,” Dea said.
In the second period, Bakersfield right wing Xavier Bourgault scored his first professional goal. He also scored in the third period to cut the lead to 4-3.
Dauphin scored 37 seconds into the third period to make it 4-2, and then at the end got an empty-net goal to earn the hat trick and clinch the win.
Including a goal on Saturday night, he had six points in the two Bakersfield games.
“Obviously tonight he had a special night, he had a four-point night,” Potvin said. “The first weekend he really showed a great game, the second night he wasn’t at his truest version so what I liked about him this weekend was he was just his best version of himself and he actually got better as the games went on.”
Dauphin played in Tucson from 2016-18 and 2018-19 before returning to the desert this season after playing the last two for the Laval Rocket.
Tucson also won 5-3 in its home opener Saturday night.
Dauphin said the weekend was “super fun."
“It’s never easy to go back to back in this league so it’s nice to get two wins this weekend,” Dauphin said.
The Roadrunners outshot Bakersfield 30-26. Goalie Jon Gillies got his second start, making 23 saves.
Up next for Roadrunners is undefeated San Jose Barracuda (4-0-0-0) on the road on Friday and Saturday. Their next home game is Nov. 11 against first-year team Coachella Valley.
Slap shots
- Dating back to last season, the Roadrunners have won four in a row at home. Last year they closed out the season with a 6-2 triumph and 2-0 shootout win over San Diego.
