Naturally there was bonus hockey on the night the Tucson Roadrunners belatedly celebrated their fifth anniversary.
Clad in their 2016-21 anniversary sweaters, the Roadrunners (11-10-2-1) suffered a 3-2 shootout loss to the Colorado Eagles (13-11-3-2) on Saturday night at home.
Tucson took its anniversary celebration into overtime before a crowd of 3,774 this year after COVID-19 spoiled its plans last season.
Colorado forward Shane Bowers opened up the scoring with a goal at the start of the second period.
Tucson trailed for much of the game until center Jan Jenik scored a power play goal 5:20 into the third period, assisted by right wing Michael Carcone and forward Matias Maccelli.
“I think we were just chipping away, we were chipping away at the game,” said Roadrunners coach Jay Varady. “Sometimes it’s not the 100th strike on the rock, it’s the 101st and we able to just kinda stay with it, stay with it stay with it and finally we broke through and when we broke through we got a little bit of action, we broke off a big chunk.”
Tucson's Matias Maccelli, left, pressures the crease as the puck gets away from Colorado goalkeeper Justus Annunen in the third period at Tucson Arena.
Less than a minute, later Tucson left wing Bokondji Imama scored the go-ahead goal with an assist from defenseman Ty Emberson.
With 4:40 left, Colorado forward Dylan Sikura scored the equalizer.
“That third period, it was pretty much like a playoff game, that’s how it felt out there, every battle were important,” Imama said. “So it was definitely like a tight one, a lot of grind but I think we did a good job sticking together as a team and keep pushing.”
Tucson lost the shootout when Colorado forward Martin Maut was the only scorer.
Going into the night, Tucson was fifth in the Pacific Division, with a winning percentage of .522, with Colorado (.518) sixth.
The Roadrunners killed both Eagle power plays. Tucson’s penalty kill unit is perfect through the last 12 periods.
Colorado's Alex Beaucage (74) brings down Tucson's Blake Speers (10), stopping his break a few feet short of the crease in the third period.
“Those guys have been doing a good job,” Varady said. “Again, it’s just some cohesion we got in our pairs, our units.”
Varady said there was an unbelievable block by defenseman Cameron Crotty and Tucson had good goaltending.
Josef Korenar got the start in goal and made 37 saves. Colorado outshot Tucson 40-30.
“I think it was a pretty good game, it just sucks we didn’t get two points but one is OK,” Korenar said. "We’ve got to be back (Sunday) in the same energy like the third period.”
The Roadrunners host Colorado again at 4 p.m. Sunday, the last home game before a six-game road trip.
Slap shots
- On Sunday the Roadrunners will host a “Winter Games Kickoff Celebration.” Former Olympians scheduled to attend the pregame ceremony include Lacey Nymeyer-John, Frank Busch, Mike Candrea and Lyndsey Fry.
- Channel 4 sports anchor and Tucson native Paul Cicala will debut as the Roadrunners’ public address announcer for Sunday's game. Kim Cota-Robles, the first woman to serve as a regular PA announcer for North American professional hockey and also a Tucson native, has served as the announcer for the first few months of the season and will work most games for the rest of the year.
