Curtis Douglas scores on milestone night as Roadrunners top Gulls; 'Festivus' celebration set for Friday

Tucson Roadrunners center Curtis Douglas celebrated his 100th AHL game in style.

The Oakville, Ontario native, who the Coyotes acquired from Toronto on Nov. 23, scored his first goal of the season about halfway through the third period of Thursday night's 6-2 win over the San Diego Gulls at Tucson Arena.

"That was pretty special, my parents were in the building, it was my 100th game tonight," Douglas said. "So I was really itching to, I mean it’s not my role, it’s not my job to score but it definitely feels nice for me to get that monkey off my back."

His parents almost came straight from the airport and joked they should have come quicker, maybe he would have scored earlier.

"I kinda got traded here so our plans kinda got a little mangled here, so it kinda surprised me almost coming down, which is special," Douglas said. "I owe everything to them so it was special to kinda pop one for them tonight."

Douglas is the 12th Roadrunner to score goals this year. Tucson (13-9-4-0) defensemen Devante Stephens and Victor Soderstrom also lit the lamp for the first time this season.

"It was great to see," said Tucson head coach Steve Potvin. "They’ve been working hard, they’ve been waiting for that little nugget and finally they got it tonight."

Kelemen opened the scoring with a power play goal, 11:39 in the first, assisted by defenseman Dysin Mayo and forward Ben McCartney.

The Roadrunners host San Diego (6-22-0-0) again on Friday night at 7 p.m. to close out the homestand and their 2022 home slate.

Six minutes into Thursday's second period, Laurent Dauphin scored a power play goal for Tucson, with assists from forward Michael Carcone and defenseman Cam Dineen.

Then a minute and 48 seconds later, Soderstrom scored. Left wing Travis Barron and forward Bokondji Imama were credited with assists.

"That’s nice to see, any time the opposition scores it’s great to see a response," Potvin said. "The shift after any goal, for or against is pretty big, so I’m glad to see that our guys responded well after goals, there’s no doubt."

San Diego got on the board at 17:04 in the second, when defenseman Nikolas Brouillard scored a power play goal.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

However, Tucson responded with a goal 35 seconds later by Stephens. Soderstrom and Imama provided assists.

Imama, who was named the first star of the game, also was in a fight early in the first period.

"Those are teams in our division that we face a lot, they’re big points, so every time we have to face a team in our division we’re expecting a good battle," Imama said.

Tucson improved to 3-0-0-0 against their I-8 Border Trophy rivals this season.

Halfway through the third, San Diego left wing Brayden Tracey scored a power-play goal.

Tucson responded to that goal 48 seconds later with a power play goal from center Jean-Sebastien Dea. Dauphin and Carcone had assists.

Then 18 seconds after that, Douglas scored his goal.

Tucson outshot San Diego 33-24. The Roadrunners were 3-for-5 on the power play, San Diego was 2-for-7.

The Roadrunners have won four of their last six. Their losses during that span were 4-3 setbacks, including the first game at Coachella Valley’s new arena.

"There was some nights there where we played extremely well and didn’t get rewarded or lost in overtime," Potvin said. "I mean we did get a little reward with a single point, but there was some nights there where we were playing really well and didn’t get the points we thought we deserved and now our guys are playing really hard, they’re playing really well."

Slap shots

• Friday night’s game is Festivus Night, referencing the 1997 Seinfeld episode "The Strike." The Roadrunners will play scenes from the episode, fans can make donations to "The Human Fund" and Dusty will be available to pose for photos with his Festivus pole.