A pair of former Tucson Roadrunners gave the home team fits at both ends of the ice, and the Iowa Wild completed its two-game sweep in Tucson Arena Wednesday night with a 5-1 win over the again-sputtering Roadrunners.
Iowa netminder Zane McIntyre stopped 25 of 26 Tucson shots, helping the Wild (27-27-4-4) return to .500 on the season by a two-day total tally of 11-2. The loss was the fourth consecutive at home for the Roadrunners (20-33-5-1).
“Yeah, it was tough. You give up 11 goals, that’s tough business,” Tucson coach Jay Varady said. “We’re facing a lot of injuries. We’re facing some depth issues. But there’s no excuses. It’s next man up.”
McIntyre played for the Roadrunners for a few weeks earlier this season. He became an everyday starter in Des Moines once the NHL’s Minnesota Wild came calling with a two-way NHL contract, leading to his assignment with the team’s American Hockey League affiliate.
Also making his return to Tucson this week and making a modest impact on the scoresheet Wednesday: a player with a much more significant sample size skating in Southern Arizona. Iowa defenseman Dakota Mermis picked up an assist on a late first-period goal by Iowa’s Mason Shaw that gave the Wild a 2-1 lead it wouldn’t relinquish. Mermis was a key part of the Roadrunners' first three seasons in Tucson, coming to the desert with the former Springfield Falcons when the team was purchased by the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes and moved to the Southwest. Mermis was the Roadrunners' captain in the 2018-19 season.
After Joe Hicketts opened the scoring early for Iowa less than four minutes into the game, Tucson’s Travis Barron banged home the pristine pass across McIntyre’s goal crease from teammate Hudson Fasching to tied the game 1-1 with four minutes to play in the opening period.
Colin Theisen, who joined the Roadrunners early last week after his college career at Arizona State came to a close, had the other assist.
But Shaw’s goal, plus additional Iowa scores from Connor Dewar and Mitchell Chafee in the second period and Dominic Turgeon late in the third helped the Wild pull away over the game’s final 40 minutes.
“It’s frustrating, obviously,” said Barron, a fifth-year pro who has set career highs this season in virtually every category – most notably with 11 goals, 12 assists and 23 points in 55 games played in his first season with Tucson. “You’ve got to learn every day still. I know we’re running low at the end, in the amount of games left. But every day is a chance to get better."
With nine games left — that includes a quick turnaround for two in Rockford, Illinois, Friday and Saturday — “there’s no quit here,” Barron said.
“Obviously it’s frustrating but those games are over and you’ve gotta look forward and give everything we’ve got,” he added.
Roadrunners goaltender Ivan Prosvetov stopped 34 of Iowa’s 39 shots. Just two days earlier, he was in net for the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes in a 5-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues. The Coyotes reassigned him to Tucson on Tuesday.
