The Roadrunners’ return to the friendly confines of Tucson Arena didn’t stop the bleeding as they dropped their seventh straight game.
The San Jose Barracuda beat Tucson 4-0 on Wednesday night. The Roadrunners are 0-5-2-0 in their last seven games.
“I thought we had a really good start, had a lot of shots on net, we weren’t able to convert and then they made critical mistakes and went down 2-0 in the first,” said Roadrunners coach Jay Varady. “We needed the next one, we needed to crawl back in the game and I thought we had some good looks but they were able to put another two on the board to create the separation.”
Barracuda right winger Evan Weinger scored 57 seconds in. Then San Jose added a second in the last minute of the first, with a goal from center Lane Pederson with 34 seconds left.
San Jose (19-29-2-1) added two more in the second but Tucson (17-28-4-1) had a clean sheet in the third period.
Tucson outshot San Jose 40-38. The loss dropped the Roadrunners to last place in the Pacific Division, behind San Jose and San Diego for the last playoff spot.
“At points of the game we kinda fell asleep a little bit, missed some of our objectives but I think we battled hard at the end of the game,” said Tucson defenseman Quinn Wichers. “We just gotta find a way to do that for the full 60 minutes.”
The Roadrunners host San Jose again at 7 p.m. Friday night, the second of a three-game home series with the Barracuda.
Heading into Wednesday’s contest, the Roadrunners had been 10-0-2 in their last 12 home games against San Jose, a span dating back to March 2018.
On Wednesday, Tucson set a new season-high mark for fights, with five Roadrunners getting fighting penalties.
“It got a little rough there at the end,” Wichers said, “but I think that’s good for us, it shows the guys are sticking up for each other and I think we got a lot of guys in there who do everything they can to fight for each other and so I think that showed tonight.”
San Jose racked up 59 penalty minutes, Tucson had 55.
The Roadrunners were 0 for 6 on the power play but killed all four Barracuda power plays.
“I thought they had a good night tonight,” Varady said. “Baylis had a good night, Wichie had a good night, those guys have been here before, they understand what we’re get accomplished and did a good job.”
Wichers and forward Stephen Baylis rejoined the Roadrunners from the Rapid City Rush of the ECHL. It is Wichers’ 13th game for the Roadrunners this season and Baylis’ fifth.
“It’s always an honor when I get to be here with these guys,” Wichers said. “It’s a great group of guys, I just hope that we can string a couple wins together here and make a good playoff push.”
Slap shots
- On Friday the Roadrunners will host First Responders Night, starting with a doubleheader between the Tucson Police Department and Tucson Fire Department at 4 p.m. Ticket proceeds will be donated to the Erik Hite Foundation, a first responders charity and I am You 360, a foster kids charity. Sparky the Fire Dog and McGruff the Crime Dog will be there and Fire, Police, and AMR Ambulance Vehicles will be on display.
- The series started a stretch of 11 home dates for Tucson in its last 19 regular-season games.
